THE BIG BUBBLE

Ok, I am crawling through the mucky world of The Residents back catalogue and have finally hit rock bottom with this album "The Big Bubble". It claims to be the fourth part of the Mole trilogy and to be honest one part of that one was quite enough for me. Here we have a made up band playing really repulsive music that is too monotonous for its own good. It simply isn't enjoyable and Residents are rarely dull for me so I was disappointed at this repetitive album. The vocalist should be banned from further singing as he may inflict serious injury on the listener. Songs are so badly sung that are intolerable and nothing more than a nuisance as the music is not all that bad when you get to hear any over the incessant manic ramblings.

'Sorry' is the beginning of all this, and is an apt title as I was sorry I listened to this; I was not impressed at all but hoped it would improve. 'Go Where Ya Wanna Go' is not much better, just monotone chants over odd synth, but then it gets into high strangeness with 'Gotta Gotta Get' that at times has some compelling synth lines, though ruined by the psychotic ravings. To get through the rest of the album is an endurance test.

'Cry for the Fire' is a darker slice of synth but again voices that destroy it are non stop. 'Die- Stay-Go' has more idiotic ravings that make Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" actually make sense. At least you can make out what Beefheart was saying on that album, but in this case the Residents are just having way too much fun spouting nonsense and they obviously don't give a toss if anyone understands. I lost any interest at this point but suffered one awful song after another.

'Vinegar' is funny as the synth line melody is the same as the opening to James Bond's "Goldfinger". It is so recognisable that it can't be a fluke. The raving voice spoils it as usual. The guy is not even trying to sing now and is just noise. The synths build sup though and the pace becomes quick and I started to like this song. Eventually the vocals return "sugar melts and goes away". However this is the best song on the album.

'Firefly' is more awful vocals and dissonant melodies. The melody is actually similar to the previous song being "Goldfinger". 'The Big Bubble' makes me wonder what were these guys thinking and I wonder if anyone associated with the project thought this would please listeners. 'Fear for the Future' has promise with a great opening drone and wonderful synth lines that appealed instantly. The music goes on for longer with this one. I was thinking, please don't sing, keep this instrumental. To my delight it is an instrumental and is definitely streets ahead of the rest of the drivel on this album. It does not have enough variation for 4 minutes though.

I celebrated when I realised I was at the end of this album with 'Kula Bocca Says So', that opens with nice droning synth but the return of the chanting vocals removes any hope of enjoyment. At the very end we actually get some drums! Not much more to say but this is arguably the worst Residents album and one of the worst albums I have ever heard. It pains me to say this as I really love a lot of The Residents work. Get "Commercial Album", "Eskimo", "The Voice of Midnight" or "Third Reich and Roll" if you want to hear excellent Residents and steer clear of this abysmal effort.

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