The debut album, Meet the Residents is an amazing 45-minute collage of sounds, riffs, melodies, short themes, etc. The music is more or less experimental collage rock with ever-changing moods which include jazzy interludes, vague hints to chamber music, musique-concret (?), wah-wah drenched Afro-funk, and pseudo-classical piano. All these influences occur in a seemingly random fashion. The vocals are quite a revelation as well. Besides the occasional choir / opera-type female vocals, there are these typical and strange, half-spoken, almost cartoon-like male vocals. The thundering vocals on "Infant Tango" recall Captain Beefheart. About every few bars new, unexpected or mutated sounds, riffs and melodies are extracted from the instruments, although it is sometimes difficult to say which instrument you are hearing. Listen to the bouncy, slightly out of tune (?) piano on "Rest Aria," which surprisingly manages to sound melancholic and haunting. Gradually, brass, xylophone, keyboards of some sort and possibly guitar add some beautiful patterns over the piano line. Some parts ("Spotted Pinto Bean") remind me a bit of an unpolished, demo version of Pierrot Lunaire's Gudrun. Some people may be put off by the "basement" sound quality, but I think it only adds to the experimental, home-made character that radiates from the album. Meet the Residents is an unique, uncompromising masterpiece.

Also note the artwork, which shows the four Beatles as demons on the front and on the back there are again the four Beatles with "lobster/seafood" heads. This front cover led to rumors that the Beatles were hiding under the name Residents, which has proven to be nonsense. However, what is remarkable is that the Residents have been able to remain incognito until now. Very few people know which musicians hide under the name Residents as they enter the stage completely disguised and don't give interviews (at least not as recognizable persons). I guess that this should emphasize that the only the music matters, not the musicians behind it.

The Residents albums that follow are equally inventive, utterly unique albums maybe only lacking the novelty value of the debut album. Albums like Duck Stab, Not Available, Mark of the Mole, Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats and Fingerprince abound with unconventional, surprising pop/avant-garde miniatures. The Commercial Album is an interesting experiment with 40 tracks all lasting one minute. Some of the tunes and melodies are fantastic, while others are not so hot. Possibly their most extreme album is Third Reich n'Roll, a hilarious persiflage on pop and rock music from the 60's. The Stones "Satisfaction" has been altered beyond recognition into a avant-gardish noise punk song. A funny album, but not easy listening. Basically, all albums up to approximately 1985 are worth a listen, although the ones mentioned above stand out in my opinion. From 1985 the Residents suffer from such standardization in their sound that I lost interest. The albums are more professionally produced and played, but they lack the spark of the earlier albums.