Emily: No ducks were stabbed in the making of this album. Well, at least I hope not. The Residents' innocuous band name belies the sheer absurdity, discord, and creepiness of their "art collective" interpretation of music. Duck Stab! could be the soundtrack of a high-concept fun house that has a lot of weird distorting mirrors and scary clowns behind every turn. Or it could be surrealistic children's music, since the lyrics are nonsensical, the tonality ominous and creepy, and the singers/speakers articulating in high-pitched voices that could easily belong to cartoon characters or Pee-Wee Herman. I thought of that episode of Rugrats where one of the babies has a dream and Stu turns into a creepy clown-like monster person. Seriously, this shit would give kids and many grown adults nightmares for weeks. I may or may not be keeping my lights on tonight to ward off dreams of ducks being stabbed...
Favorite Tracks: The Electrocutioner; Krafty Cheese; Weight-Lifting Lulu
Zack: I had no idea what to expect from this album.
Apparently, what I should have foreseen the output of a mockumentary band. I
didn’t check Wikipedia until I sat down to write my review, but the first
things that caught my eye were two pieces of trivia that made total sense after
listening to the album: The Residents are less a band and more of an “art
collective” and they have produced more than 60 albums as well as numerous
multimedia projects. Apparently, they also wear eyeball masks with top hats
when they perform. Because duh. Duck Stab!/Buster Glen is precisely as weird as
all those parts add up to, and I ended up listening to it while typing up notes
on various shortcuts for political preference taking. It was quite a feeling. I
don’t know what was more confusing: the random noises coming through my
headphones or the methodology that Chong, Citrin, and Conley employed. I don’t
really have much more to say about the album. I didn’t like it. Not at all. But
the absolute absurdity was sort of endearing. That’s all I have to say about
that.
Favorite Tracks: Blue Rosebud; The Electrocutioner;
Constantinople
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