The Talk of Creatures

I'll be honest - and this is probably part of The Residents' intent as well - the 9/11 attacks never really come into my mind when I put Demons Dance Alone on. It was clearly inspired by those events, but I feel like it could apply to any other major cause of grievance (not even necessarily a public event), and still hold the same strength to it. I find tracks like "Make Me Moo" and "Honey Bear" to be of a much wider relevance (case in point, I find the WoW version of "Honey Bear" to be even stronger in emotion).

But this is probably obvious enough to most people. That the September 11 event didn't directly inspire DDA but simply opened up an ocean of emotions that were simply waiting to be liberated and targeted at anything that was big enough. I've noticed that a lot of albums by other artists that were released around a year after 9/11 manage to release emotion in a similar way to DDA. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Ween's GodWeenSatan: Live and Quebec, etc.

But personally that event has nothing to do with my relationship with DDA. It's not my favorite track from the album, but "Make Me Moo" resonates with me with an intensity that probably shouldn't be usual. The innocent lyrics, the adorable yet worrysome melodies, its placement in the album, it's all very emotional to me. Even the fact that they never play it in the live show suggests just how heartfelt it is. They could never replicate the feeling in that live setting. The will to just give up. To live in a different world in which you don't have to deal with these things. These childish desires never truly leave us. None of the grievances and desires in these songs will ever cease to be part of us.

Hell... even the album artwork seems almost like a personal outrage. The image of a heart multiplied all over the canvas, the closed fists raining from the air, all the severely distorted portraits of the band members (my favorite is the one with the glasses and witch-like nose), I think visually it's the best Residents album.

I find it sad that it's so jarringly underrated. But it's like C.H. said, Americans don't understand why The Residents aren't trying to write another The Rising or why the singers aren't howling (even though Randy's scream at the end of "Neediness" is all the emotion you need). A shame, really. I feel like The Residents were aware of that.