Line #56 Music/TheCommercialAlbum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/residents_commercial_album_6592.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"Easter woman came today and took away my wife... Took her through an open doorway to the afterlife..."]]
3
4	''Commercial Album'' is one of the most iconic albums by Music/TheResidents, released in 1980. A ConceptAlbum built around the premise that mainstream pop songs should be combined with advertising radio jingles, which would result in total commercial success. Each song on ''Commercial Album'' is therefore only about a minute long, much like a radio advertising spot. Listeners are instructed to play them three times in a row to get the feeling of a typical pop song, if they want that experience.
5	----
6	!! Tracklist:
7
8	[[AC:Side One]]
9	# "Easter Woman" – 1:03
10	# "Perfect Love" – 1:03
11	# "Picnic Boy" – 1:03
12	# "End of Home" – 1:03
13	# "Amber" – 1:03
14	# "Japanese Watercolor" – 1:03
15	# "Secrets" – 1:03
16	# "Die in Terror" – 1:03
17	# "Red Rider" – 1:03
18	# "My Second Wife" – 1:03
19	# "Floyd" – 1:03
20	# "Suburban Bathers" – 1:03
21	# "Dimples and Toes" – 1:03
22	# "The Nameless Souls" – 1:03
23	# "Love Leaks Out" – 1:03
24	# "Act of Being Polite" – 1:03
25	# "Medicine Man" – 1:03
26	# "Tragic Bells" – 1:03
27	# "Loss of Innocence" – 1:03
28	# "The Simple Song" – 1:03
29
30	[[AC:Side Two]]
31	# "Ups and Downs" – 1:03
32	# "Possessions" – 1:03
33	# "Give It to Someone Else" – 1:03
34	# "Phantom" – 1:03
35	# "Less Not More" – 1:03
36	# "My Work Is So Behind" – 1:03
37	# "Birds in the Trees" – 1:03
38	# "Handful of Desire" – 1:03
39	# "Moisture" – 1:03
40	# "Love Is..." – 1:03
41	# "Troubled Man" – 1:03
42	# "La La" – 1:03
43	# "Loneliness" – 1:03
44	# "Nice Old Man" – 1:03
45	# "The Talk of Creatures" – 1:03
46	# "Fingertips" – 1:03
47	# "In Between Dreams" – 1:03
48	# "Margaret Freeman" – 1:03
49	# "The Coming of the Crow" – 1:03
50	# "When We Were Young" – 1:03
51	----
52	! ''Commercial Tropes'':
53	* ADayInTheLimelight: Hardy's role as a singer is more pronounced here than even the group's first few albums.
54	** Snakefinger arguably gets an even bigger one. He's all over this album as usual, but on top of that he duets with [[Music/{{XTC}} Andy Partridge]] on "Margaret Freeman", an uncredited Music/{{Brian Eno}} on "The Coming of the Crow," and Fred Frith on "Ups and Downs", in which he also sings lead.
55	* AgeProgressionSong: "Troubled Man".
56	--> ''His wife had left him long ago''
57	--> ''For someone without skin,''
58	--> ''And now he faced the mirror''
59	--> ''And he saw a doubled chin''
60	--> ''He was having trouble''
61	--> ''And he'd had it for awhile,''
62	--> ''His daughter died a year ago''
63	--> ''She was his only child''
64	* AlternativeRock: How much more alternative can you get?
65	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''L'''ove '''L'''eaks Out", "The '''S'''imple '''S'''ong", "The '''C'''oming of the '''C'''row", "'''M'''edicine '''M'''an", "'''R'''ed '''R'''ider", "'''W'''hen '''W'''e '''W'''ere Young".
66	* AllThereInTheManual: The concept is explained in the liner notes.
67	* AntiLoveSong: "Perfect Love". Could count as a BreakupSong too.
68	* BeachEpisode: "Suburban Bathers"
69	--> ''Suburban bathers own the sea''
70	--> ''But just between you and me''
71	--> ''The sun has never fully set''
72	--> ''That's seen the bathers fully wet''
73	* {{Claustrophobia}}: "The Nameless Souls"
74	--> ''We were just the nameless souls that sit inside''
75	--> ''Wishing that we were someone on the outside''
76	--> ''Wishing that we were the ones on the outside''
77	--> ''Wishing that we weren't the ones who were stuck''
78	* ConceptAlbum: This might be the most rigorously executed concept album ever. Not only did they record 40 "pop" songs, each exactly a minute in length, but also bought up 40 one minute ad spaces on San Francisco radio, effectively creating their own payola Top 40!
79	* DeadPartner: "Easter Woman":
80	--> ''Easter Woman came today and took away my wife''
81	--> ''Took her through an open doorway to the afterlife''
82	* DeathSong: "Easter Woman", "My Work Is So Behind", and perhaps "Die in Terror".
83	* DrivenToSuicide: The speaker of "My Work Is So Behind" burns himself to death in his own home to escape his backlog.
84	* FaceOnTheCover: The band is shown upside down, as the eyes to a [[Creator/JohnTravolta pair]] of [[Creator/BarbraStreisand faces]].
85	* GriefSong: A surprisingly large portion of the album is about failed relationships or the death of a loved one.
86	* HarshVocals: Sort of a given, with Randy behind the mic.
87	* InnocenceLost: "The Loss of Innocence", where a man visits a sideshow carnival. When he leaves "the waves of people drown the sounds of loss of innocence".
88	* InvertedPortrait: On the album cover, where the eyeballs of The Residents (who are standing upside down) are the eyes of [[Creator/JohnTravolta two]] giant [[Music/BarbraStreisand people]].
89	* IWantSong: "Give It to Someone Else".
90	--> ''I wanted to give it to someone else''
91	--> ''And hear what they would say''
92	--> ''I wanted to give it to someone else''
93	--> ''And watch them as they played''
94	* LyricalDissonance: A few, but by far the biggest example, of this album and maybe their whole career, is "Amber", which is upbeat almost to the point of {{glurge}}[[invoked]]:
95	-->Life is just a situation, life is just a game\
96	Life is just a whirlpool and it's calling out my name
97	* MinisculeRocking: 40 tracks, all lasting a minute long.
98	* MoodWhiplash: Every track will genuinely change your mood. Sometimes in-between the songs themselves.
99	* NonAppearingTitle: Nowhere does the words "Commercial Album" appear on the album.
100	* OminousPipeOrgan: One shows up on "Phantom".
101	* OneManSong: "Picnic Boy", "Floyd", "Medicine Man", "Troubled Man", "Nice Old Man".
102	* OneWomanSong: "Easter Woman", "My Second Wife" and "Margaret Freeman".
103	* OneWordTitle: "Possessions", "Phantom", "Moisture", "Loneliness", "Fingertips".
104	* TheOneThatGotAway and OneTrueLove: "Perfect Love"
105	--> ''The only ever perfect love is one that gets away''
106	* ParodyCommercial: The length of the songs is intended to mimic those of radio commercials, hence the album title.
107	* PunnyName: "Commercial" as in both "commercially viable," and "advertisement," which all of the songs were the length of. To illustrate the latter point, they bought 40 ad slots on KFRC, each consisting of one song from the album.
108	* RefugeInAudacity: Some of these songs are a test to your endurance. Luckily they only take up a minute each.
109	* RepurposedPopSong: Pop songs are transformed in to advertising jingles.
110	* ShoutOut: The couple on the album cover are Creator/JohnTravolta and Creator/BarbraStreisand.
111	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Hardy Fox sings lead on "Suburban Bathers", "Loneliness", "The Talk of Creatures", and "Fingertips", duets with the Singing Resident on "Birds in the Trees" and "My Work Is So Behind", and sings backing on "Dimples and Toes".
112	* TheSomethingSong: "The Simple Song"
113	* SpecialGuest: Music/LeneLovich, Music/{{Snakefinger}}, [[Music/HenryCow Fred Frith, Chris Cutler]], [[Music/{{XTC}} Andy Partridge]], and two Special Secret Appearances, later revealed to be Music/DavidByrne and Music/BrianEno.
114	* TopTenJingle: Several songs mimic or parody this style.

Context Music / TheCommercialAlbum