The Commercial Album

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The Commercial Album
Studio album by The Residents
Released	November 1980
Recorded	?
Genre	Rock
Length	42:12
Label	East Side Digital
Producer	?
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
The Residents chronology
Babyfingers (1979) The Commercial Album (1980) Mark of the Mole (1981)

The Commercial Album is an album released by The Residents in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen. The album pares down the concept and structure of the average commercial pop song and reduces it to a one-minute redux. It contains a compilation of 40 such sixty-second vignettes. The album used several session musicians, including Chris Cutler, Snakefinger and Fred Frith as well as two anonymous guest vocalists, Lene Lovich ("Picnic Boy") and Andy Partridge ("Margaret Freeman"). The album may have been the main inspiration for They Might Be Giants' 20-track piece "Fingertips" from Apollo 18. Their song could also allude to "Fingertips," Track 36 of The Commercial Album.

The faces on the album cover are John Travolta and Barbra Streisand. The backside of the original LP labels listed the length as "1:00" after each of the 40 song titles. The first edition listed the tracks in the wrong order on the first edition sleeve.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Easter Woman"
2. "Perfect Love"
3. "Picnic Boy"
4. "End of Home"
5. "Amber"
6. "Japanese Watercolor"
7. "Secrets"
8. "Die in Terror"
9. "Red Rider"
10. "My Second Wife"
11. "Floyd"
12. "Suburban Bathers"
13. "Dimples and Toes"
14. "The Nameless Souls"
15. "Love Leaks Out"
16. "Act of Being Polite"
17. "Medicine Man"
18. "Tragic Bells"
19. "Loss of Innocence"
20. "The Simple Song"
21. "Ups and Downs"
22. "Possessions"
23. "Give It to Someone Else"
24. "Phantom"
25. "Less Not More"
26. "My Work Is So Behind"
27. "Birds in the Trees"
28. "Handful of Desire"
29. "Moisture"
30. "Love Is..."
31. "Troubled Man"
32. "La La"
33. "Loneliness"
34. "Nice Old Man"
35. "The Talk of Creatures"
36. "Fingertips"
37. "In Between Dreams"
38. "Margaret Freeman"
39. "The Coming of the Crow"
40. "When We Were Young"

• Bonus Tracks (1988 CD release only)

1. "Shut Up Shut Up"
2. "And I Was Alone"
3. "Theme for an American TV Show"
4. "We're a Happy Family/Bali Ha'i"
5. "The Sleeper"
6. "Boy in Love"
7. "Diskomo (Remix)"
8. "Jailhouse Rock"
9. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World"
10. "Hit the Road Jack"

v • d • e The Residents Discography Meet the Residents · Not Available · The Third Reich 'n Roll · Fingerprince · Duck Stab/Buster & Glen · Eskimo · The Commercial Album · Mark of the Mole · The Tunes of Two Cities · Intermission: Extraneous Music from the Residents' Mole Show · George & James · Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? · The Big Bubble: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy · Stars & Hank Forever: The American Composers Series · God in Three Persons · The King & Eye · Freak Show/Freak Show Soundtrack · Our Finest Flowers · Gingerbread Man · Bad Day on the Midway · Have a Bad Day · Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible · Icky Flix · Demons Dance Alone · Animal Lover · River of Crime (Episodes 1-5) · Timmy · Tweedles · The Voice of Midnight · The Bunny Boy Related articles Snakefinger · N. Senada · Vileness Fats · Ralph Records