THE BUNNY BOY

First of all, I'm not a Residents fanatic. I've only heard a handful of their albums and this is the first I've gotten round to buying on CD. If you're in a similar situation and have been flirting with the idea of getting this album. then my advice to you is simple: Get it. Right now. There has never been a better chance in recent years of getting into this band and their all-encompassing approach to music-making.

I'll try to limit most of this review to discussing the music presented on this album itself, but I must make a brief mention of its wider context. The Bunny Boy is far from just a collection of new Residents songs. It's an unashamed concept album with a lengthy (and still ongoing, as I write this) online video series revolving around the titular and enigmatic character and his search for his brother, who has mysteriously disappeared. The story is bleak, funny, heart-wrenching and puzzling in roughly equal measure, and there is really little point in listening to this album without also investing some time in watching the videos in order to better understand the lyrical content of the songs.

So musically, how does this album compare to the likes of Duck Stab, Eskimo, The Commercial Album, etc.? In my opinion, really rather well. It kicks off with a handful of tunes that demonstrate exactly where the band has come from and where they're heading - twisted little pop tunes (yes, this is without question a "poppy" album at times - those after sumptuous prog epics and self-indulgent, twiddly solos are strongly advised to look elsewhere), saturated with eerie keyboards, pulsing electronic beats, sinister vocals and stark, atmospheric guitars.

As with all good pop tunes, they're maddeningly catchy. Spin this album a couple of times and you'll be lucky to have more than a few minutes a day without one of these songs whirling round your head, providing an unsettling soundtrack to your every mundane action.

"Boxes of Armageddon" gets things off to almost too good a start - an infectious tune, wonderfully arranged with menacing horns and a sustained, guitar-growl - it sets such a high benchmark that on my first few listens I felt the remainder of the album simply never matched it. I've since revised this opinion, but it remains a superb opening track and it's still pretty hard to beat.

Every track from "Rabbit Habit" through to "Fever Dreams" works like a charm and will delight casual and obsessive Residents fans alike. A special mention must go, at this point, to "Pictures From a Little Girl" which boasts some of the Residents most blatant lyrics to date, neatly exposing the album's themes like some sort of psychotic checklist: Fear, terror, panic and doom.

Following this initial run of outstanding tracks, the album settles into a far more ambient sort of groove. The instrumental "I Like Black" is solid and just as infectious as the songs that precede it, but amidst an album of ideas, theatricality and puzzles the very fact that it's instrumental makes it seem rather like an unfinished song - lacking the vocals that would anchor it to the rest of the album.

The remainder of the album is as stuffed with wonderful tunes as the opening songs (too many to go through in detail, alas) but it's all of an increasingly downbeat nature. Especially when listened to with the benefit of knowing the story (through the videos and/or tour), it's hard not to be a little moved by some of the songs featured here, which is surprising, to me at least. I've often been amused and shocked by the Residents, but to be genuinely touched by them is a new, intriguing and surprisingly welcome experience.

All in all, this is a very, very good album, and were it hailing from an unknown band with only an EP or two under their belts this would undoubtedly be a glowing five-star review. As it stands, this CD (divorced from the other elements of the project), isn't so musically innovative, by The Residents' standards at least.

This album, and all that goes with it, has gotten me far more interested and excited in The Residents as they are now than any of their previous recent efforts ever could. Despite their bewildering back-catalogue, there's never been a better time to get into this band.

In 2008 I finally rediscovered the Residents for myself! Up to that point I had heard a few of their albums but now that the band has really grown on me, so I decided to check out their latest release!

Since I've heard most of their 70's output and just a couple of the 80's and onward releases the sound was at first pretty shocking. Still I found that this release had a true the Residents-quality to it since I fell in love with it after just a few spins. The tracks maintain a short format of 2,5 minutes which at first might seem to be a return to the familiar grounds of the 1980's Commercial Album, but this material is far more twisted and intense than the relatively short and sweet performances from those days. If anything, this can be considered a return to the material featured on Animal Lover or even God In Three Persons!

Although my first reactions settled a bit after repeated listens, The Bunny Boy is still an amazing album that I would recommend to anyone with a twisted sense of humor! The follow-up tour that I attended here in Stockholm, Sweden was beyond words and really elevated the album's story arc to a whole new level of enjoyment!

***** star songs: Boxes Of Armageddon (2:12) What If It's True? (2:32) Fever Dreams (1:37) I Like Black (2:23) Secret Room (3:19) My Nigerian Friend (1:59) I Killed Him (2:15)

**** star songs: Rabbit Habit (2:14) I'm Not Crazy (2:38) Pictures From A Little Girl (2:29) Butcher Shop (2:34) It Was Me (1:59) Golden Guy (2:22) The Bunny Boy (2:24) Blood On The Bunny (2:13) The Dark Man (2:34) Secret Message (2:38) Patmos (2:30) The Black Behind (4:44)

Total rating: 4,34

The Bunny Boy project poses an interesting dilemma for the reviewer, even more so than most of the Residents' work. The problem here is that this particular project involves a multi-episode internet drama series, an album of music based around the series, an album of music used in the series, an album of unused pieces, and a DVD consisting of a newly edited version of the original series, all of which act as parts for a larger (but deliberately holey) whole. What, then, is the work one is actually reviewing?

The entire project revolves around a man, seemingly named Roger, who is using the internet to try and find his lost brother Harvey. Roger was victim of some kind of accident while in Greece (the details of this, though, are vague), and the appeals he makes over the web become increasingly disturbed. We eventually see him donning a full body bunny costume, as if this will somehow help him in his plea. When the series originally ran online, viewers could contact Roger by email to help him find Harvey, and Roger would respond back to you (giving you a chance, perhaps, to actually communicate with a central Resident?). Along the way, Roger starting selling objects from the room he was broadcasting from so that he could get money to go to Arkansas to find Harvey. One could actually go to ebay and buy cheap little knickknacks to "help" Roger. He also went on tour with the Residents to help make his case and earn money. So, ebay and the Residents' tour were also part of the larger narrative (that is, the tour wasn't strictly in support of the album but yet another part of the big story). So what is the work one is actually reviewing?

The block you have just read (and the one you are reading now) will reappear in each review I am offering of each element of the Bunny Boy project. This boilerplate, meant to help connect everything, will be followed by a segment that focuses on what the separate element adds. Overall, what should be recognized is that with the Bunny Boy series, the Residents have pushed the idea of the concept album into a radical new direction in a way that was truly multimedia but that also tripped the lines between art and reality, artist and audience.

"The Bunny Boy" album itself rather than being the origin for the whole project is more of an imaginative attempt to tell Roger's story in a song cycle. Having said that, I'm not sure how much a listener could discern the story entirely without having also watched the video series. Regardless, it's a strong album, probably the Residents' best since "Animal Lover" (2005). It should be noted that much of their work in the Noughties has involved a form of narrative or storytelling music (certainly true of "Tweedles," "The River of Crime" and "The Voice of Midnight"), a form they explored earlier in "God in Three Persons" (1988). But these other projects can involve just too much narrative if you're not in the mood. That is, a narrator tells a compelling (and usually disturbing) first-person narrative over a musical backdrop, and it's that voice that dominates the work. To put it badly, those projects aren't ones that you would likely find yourself putting on as background while you are trying to get some reading or writing or billpaying done. While "The Bunny Boy" has predominately narrative moments as well, such as on pieces like "Pictures From a Little Girl" and "I Killed Him," it is the music and singing (well, you know, Residents-type singing) that comes much more to the fore here. Sometimes the mellow, sentimental crooning that began to creep in on Demons Dance Alone (2002) can be found here, on songs like "Secret Room," but if that wasn't your kind of thing, there are also plenty of rough and edgier moments, excellent keyboard motifs and abstract patterns, moody harmonies and angular guitar.

Of everything that has arisen so far from the Bunny Boy project, this (alongside Postcards From Patmos) stands most strongly on its own and rewards generously with multiple listens.

Outstanding tracks: "Boxes of Armageddon," "My Nigerian Friend," "It Was Me," "Blood on the Bunny," and the truly beautiful "Patmos."

Overall project: 4; this album: 4 (3.6ish, rounded up).

Also see: Postcards from Patmos, Arkansas and Is Anybody Out There? (DVD).

"The Bunny Boy" is a bunch of downbeat songs about life and dying and whatever else springs into the minds of these nutters. The accompanying internet interaction and DVD would be helpful to comprehend what this is all about but it is hard to locate these days so we are stuck with just the audio and it is baffling but bedazzling at the same time. The story involves the search for a brother who has mysteriously disappeared. The Residents are always going to surprise with their unique brand of music. This album certainly has its fair share of bizarre moments but is a much more polished production with some music that actually is well played, not sounding like a kid banging on a xylophone or out of tune guitars competing with dissonant synths, and nasally Louisianan twang in the singing and a ton of repetitive chanting. This is perhaps a more accessible album as those are the normal attributes of a Resident's project and they are for the most part absent here. It opens with

Boxes of Armageddon that draws us into the enigmatic atmosphere of bleak ravings set to music. I'm Not Crazy is ironic as I always thought they were, and Pictures From a Little Girl has a little girl with a disturbing demeanour.

The Yankee twang is here on songs like Secret Room but the music is not soaked in doomy synths. The lyrics are nonsense as usual and there is an odd array of instrumentation but it kind of shimmers and sparkles rather than sounding bleak such as on My Nigerian Friend. The instrumentals such as I Like Black are quite endearing. The lead guitar at times sounds well played, but its not Snakefinger.

Golden Guy sounds more like vintage Residents with its quirky lyrics with repeated phrases and nasal vox along with eerie sounds emanating. The mention of Elvis cements this sentiment as he has been a target of Residents since the beginning. The Bunny Boy is more gravelly singing over dissonant lead guitar and low synth tones. It develops into a heavier vibe with crashing drums and distorted guitars and then a pitchy reverberated voice chanting. The time sig changes and moves into an atonal anti-music passage.

Blood on the Bunny takes things to a more unsettling level, then I Killed Him comes in with driving guitar screeches and xylophone sounds, tinkering over the unusual vocals. The story is developing but its impossible to understand without prior knowledge or the DVD.

The Dark Man sounds like it's been lifted from one of the earlier Residents albums, apart from the clearer production. It's very bleak and repetitive, lots of tinkering, sustained synths, guttural singing and nonsensical narrations. Secret Message has a cool melody, deceptively sweet in nature for a while, then the squiggly sound and vocals enter throwing it off balance. Patmos is monotonous melodies and the album closes with growling sinister vocals on the deliriously nasty Black Behind; "everything is black!" What are they saying? Basically that everything is black; "there is nothing but the black behind, snaking, creeping, hiding in the shadows and waiting for the naïve, the unaware, the careless and those who aren't scared to be sucked into the black behind." The angelic choir at the end may signify that the boy found his brother in the blackness of death.

Overall a 3 star album that is way more accessible musically than usual, and still highly strange in terms of content and vocals. Not the place to start for this band but nevertheless a decent exploration of searching and the pain of loss.

The Bunny Boy by The Residents was released in 2008, the time when The Residents was once again putting out better output, even though it was still very satirical, at least the quality of the music was better. Many people would argue that this was one of their better albums, and I have to agree. The electronics had gotten better and the vocals were not quite as annoying, but not only that, the stories were (usually) more imaginative and they also incorporated real instruments along with electronics to help flesh things out, and they also included other singers sometimes as lead and other time as simply background.

In this album, the songs are all quite short, so they tend to move a long better and the album doesn't drag on so much. The album is also quite verbose, and the singing is mostly done by The Residents' vocalist, but it's not as annoying as say 'God in 3 Persons' in that he doesn't just narrate, he also sings, and this is all made more listenable with the background singers giving more substance to the music. Overall, the music is still somewhat minimal, at least now you get some wailing guitars in different songs and the percussion is better, in that it doesn't sound so much like your grandma's cheap Wurlitzer organ. There is also an extensive use of processed vocals, but not always in a bad way, it gives more depth to the music.

The avant garde nature of the music is also present and it is better utilized. You still get a kooky story line here too. Originally, the music supported a vido story that was posted in serial on The Residents' web site (66 episodes). The videos are not there anymore, but the music still stands alone quite well. The story is basically about a kid known as The Bunny Boy who posts videos on YouTube, who asks his followers to help him locate his Armageddon-obsessed brother who was lost on the island of Patmos. By the time the album is over, you are not really sure if there was a brother or if Bunny Boy was actually the lost person. Or maybe he killed his brother? Who knows? The Residents keep everything shrouded in mystery. The songs have to do with different emails and ideas that his followers put into his head. Yeah, it's all weird, just what you would expect from The Residents. But the music is some of their best with short songs that are complicated enough to be considered avant garde. Some are quite up beat, while others are slow and brooding, but it all stays interesting music-wise through the entire album. You still feel like the music is also bordering on the edge of sanity which is also expected from the band.

Even though it is not one of the best albums in their discography, it is good enough to at least be one of their better ones. It doesn't quite hold up to 'Duck Stab', 'Eskimo', 'Coochie Brake' or 'Wormwood', but it is one that a newcomer could listen to, if they wanted to get an idea of The Residents strange music, especially in the latter years. It tends to drag a bit at the end, but at least it's a lot easier to get through than some of their less interesting albums, and the music is also among the better quality of the band. It also is not a 'one-trick-pony' joke either and the music stands well on it's own, unlike some of their other projects. Anyway, this is a good one for the curious, but also a good one for the fans. 4 stars.