The Talk of Creatures

I just listened to I Am A Resident for the first time. HOLY EYEBALLS IT'S AMAZING!

I mean, I was expecting to like it since most of the songs covered in this album I like, but WOW. The remix concept is really what pushes this album from "cool fan compilation, Eyesore 2.0" to the advertised "NEW CONCEPT FROM THE RESIDENTS". It is fantastic. It really is a new Residents album, and it's pretty sweet.

I like the little radio framing device they use to open and close the album. It's cute and makes the album feel like this big event... I'm not sure properly how to explain it. Somehow it makes it feel more like "oh yeah, these people ARE Residents!" Honestly it reminds me of those 1 hour megamixes pop radio stations play on the weekends (... not that I listen to pop music radio...). It's a pretty genius way to frame this album because well... the remix concept really does make this a megamix in a way. I mean it's just one hour of straight Residential chaos and it's awesome.

The whole remix thing adds another layer to the thing as well. Because all the covers blend together and "The Real Residents?" add new textures (AND LYRICS!) on top of them, this really feels like "Our Finest Flowers 2". Which is pretty sweet! Honestly? I kind of like this more as a "Residents play The Residents" album compared to Our Finest Flowers. Maybe because we live in the future where computer synthesized music sounds better and we have even more Rz material to choose from. Maybe it's because the songs are longer and mixed together so they have time to flow between vastly more songs AND the songs get to live on their own for a bit instead of just being squashed together into one single song. Maybe because that cute radio thing and the "I Am A Resident theme" at the end made it more special. I don't know but I love it.

I'm honestly surprised that they thought of this project back in 2013. I mean, at this point I'm used to knowing that Residents albums take years to develop from just the basic idea, but wow... unlike whatever the "Blues Album" is going to be called, this one kind of just laid hidden for quite a while until they actually unveiled the pledgemusic campaign. It's weird that this Residents album was originally imagined up right when I became a "proper" Residents fan... and it just came out and I'm just now listening to it. Crazy!

I lack the musical talent to have properly contributed to the project... and even if I did, I had no money while the pledgemusic campaign was running. So do I consider myself to be a Resident? Maybe. Just maybe.