MARK OF THE MOLE

Here the Residents embark on their most ambitious project to date. A sprawling story about to races of people and the clash of cultures that happens when they are driven together through natural forces. I'll spare you the details of the storyline, but as concept albums go, this one makes even the ponderous A Passion Play look light and frivolous.

This album represents the beginnings of the Residents' experiments with electronics, and the results are a mixed bag and largely a matter of taste. Personally, I tend to prefer their acoustic sounds, but they certainly manage to get the most out of their synths. The Mark of the Mole alternates between telling the story of the Moles and the Chubs, and creating faux-ethnic music supposedly enjoyed by the respective cultures. The concept is fascinating and much of the music is good, but the sound is relentlessly dark and the storyline feels someone forced, awkwardly narrated by the singing Resident, with the help of expansive liner notes.

Overall, I find it an enjoyable album, but one wonders if it would be quite so interesting if taken at face value and divorced from the unbelievably audacious concept behind it.