OUR FINEST FLOWERS

The product of vomit, literally.

The foreword in the CD liner indicates that The Residents where approached about compiling a best of album. The ensuing team meeting involved a resistant band and some questionable take-out food. After making a list of songs that were worthy of a "best of", one of the members became ill and proceeded to assault the list with an emetic editorial. The running ink and spew resulted in what appeared to be this albums song titles with the discernible words, "Our Finest Flowers" across the top. Indeed the band decided to spew forth themselves and provide "best of" parts and rearrange them into new songs. Those who can identify with the body of The Residents work will hear the ring of familiarity in these "new" songs.

As with all Residents work, if you are not a hardcore fan or at least fascinated by their associated mythology, it takes a very particular mood to listen to a full Residents album. The sinister undertones and electronic purgatory The Residents hold their listeners in is really no different in Our Finest Flowers than the previous half-dozen albums. What is missing, despite the story above, is the single unifying theme that made most of The Residents albums so entertaining. The stories that link Freak Show or God in Three Persons are not to be found here. The individual pieces are not lacking in creativity and occasional surprises, like the ambiguous opened steam pipe sound in Dead Wood. Unfortunately, this falls short of other works from the giant eye-balls.

Good, but not essential. 3 stars.

This album is not really a compilation, and not exactly new music. To celebrate thier twentith anniverary as a band, the eyeballs decided that instead of releasing a traditional "best of" collection, the would combine bits and pieces of multiple songs (most of them newly recorded), and create new works. A seasoned Residents veteran can pick out many of the themes, licks and lyrics used from songs from throughout the band's history. And that's where most of this album's enjoyment comes from.

The down side of the album is the execution. In later years, instead of concocting odd sounds from whatever instruments they found, The Residents now use mostly traditional synthesizer patches to create their music, causing a sameness to their sound that didn't exist in the early years.

But hey, it's still The Residents, and synthesizers or not, no one makes music like they do.