The Residents - The Tunes of Two Cities

What an adorable album cover.

There can be no doubt about it: The Residents are a very interesting group. In my opinion, they're one of the most interesting musical groups ever to exist. Not all of the albums in their massive discography are zingers, but you can always rest assured that you'll walk away from your first listen of a Residents album knowing that you heard something completely different. For The Residents, no style, instrument, theme, or odd quirk is beyond consideration. No matter what your musical preferences are, chances are good that The Residents have at least one song (if not an entire album) that could potentially appeal to you in some way.

The Tunes of Two Cities is a concept album based around the contrast between two fictional cultures, the Chubs and the Moles. I won't go into too much detail, but supposedly the Chubs are a hedonistic and superficial culture, whereas the Moles are a dark and tribal one. The songs on this album alternate regularly between the music of the Chubs, which is silly and fun carnival pop, and the music of the Moles, which is dark and tribal ritual music. Unfortunately, the album is somewhat mired in cheesy synthesizer timbre (I seem to have a bad habit of posting albums with that problem), which wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that some of the fake instruments sound pretty grating, like the bleating horns and braying synth-voices. Thankfully, the two worst offenders on the album -- "Serenade for Missy" and "A Maze of Jigsaws" -- come first, so it's (comparatively) fair sailing after that.

I must say reluctantly that I enjoy the Chubs' music a little more simply because their style of music is more suited to this kind of timbre than the Moles'. I like the Moles' sense of layering, catchy noisiness, and unorthodox choice of instruments, but the intended atmosphere is lost with that rigid Fisher Price sound. The Chubs, on the other hand, come up with some pretty fun and playful carnival ditties, complete with swinging horns, synthesized "la-la"ing, tinkling vibes, buzzing synth-bass, and chipper melodies. All in all a good album, and fitting for a 90's video game (which is funny, since the album came out in 1982).

Favorite track: "Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth)"
Least favorite track: "Serenade for Missy"

Get it here