WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VILENESS FATS?

I am ready to acknowledge of course that the Residents are supercool, mysterious, clever, original, bold and experimental. But does this mean they are good? I'm not so sure. In fact there's quite a bit of their stuff that I don't really like to listen to, although I understand why it qualifies as "cool". Despite my experimental leanings, trash esthetic isn't quite right for me, and that rules out a considerable portion of their output. Well perhaps not so much... I listen to a lot of Residents these days and change my mind about them all the time. Sometimes I hate them, sometimes I realise what geniuses they are; neither of these sentiments goes away for long.

"Whatever Happens to Vileness Fats" is one of their less trashy and more accessible releases, if not the most, and potentially also their most consistent. It's mostly electronic with some reference to Kraftwerk. It comes with a small amount of vocals here and there, and there is rather little ambition this time to destroy sounds on purpose to generate nastiness. Sure the keyboards sound somewhat thin, dirty and occasionally noisy, they have a reputation to lose so that's what they do. There's also a little atonal sax that works rather well in Eloise, which also has some trashy vocals but still qualifies as a highlight.

This was recorded as a soundtrack for what was finally published as a 40 minutes or so extract from a much earlier grandiose but failed film project, "Vileness Fats". It surely sounds like very suitable music for a film and having not seen it, I can imagine my own wacky animation film for this. The downside is that sometimes it seems like something is missing, like this is meant to work together with the visuals that are not there on the album. One issue that I have with the Residents is that much of what they do doesn't seem to be about the music alone, but rather about storytelling, theater, other visual effects, provocation etc. Which is fine for those who love that kind of stuff but loses them some marks from those like me who are in the first place if not exclusively interested in the music.

There is a rather consistent sound with some themes recurring throughout the album. It has a rather minimalist flavour with very transparent and sometimes repetitive arrangements carrying small melodies and motifs, but it isn't without surprising twists. The mood is cloudy to dark with the odd musical joke thrown in. The title track is really awesome and memorable. and there are further very good moments. Overall the album runs smoothly, I'm tempted to say almost a bit too smoothly; the listener isn't put off at any point but may crave for some more of the spice of which some other Residents albums have rather too much. Well, ultimately it's still the Residents and warped enough. Surely it's a good and unique album with some highlights, but over the full distance something is missing to make it really great. 3.3 stars.

PS: This is about the old Ralph album without the "Census Taker" bonus tracks.