THE KING & EYE

You would think, given their history of recording some pretty bizarre cover songs, that The Residents could really make a wild album based on Elvis presley's music, But this album falls short. Way short.

The big problem is synthesizers. Where on earlier albums, The Residents created their own sounds, coming up wi'h pieces where the listener might think "How did they do that?", here the tones are all recognizable synth patches. And the synth patches provide a sameness to the songs, from which 'he band rarely breaks away.

The concept is a man telling the story of Elvis, called here "The Baby King", to two small children. The album was shortened and used as one of the segments of the "Cube-E" live tour. At least here the vocalist doesn't completely wreck the songs by shouting them all in an angry death metal growl. Here he speaks most of them in a cowboy poem sort of style. And the music, for the most part, bears little resemblance to the songs they are representing.

I can't say it's all bad. About two thirds of the way through, the group hits their stride, and Little Sister breaks out of 'he sameness, and becomes an eerie, ominous piece wi'h the dark warning "Little sister don't do what your big sister done". And His Latest Flame also stands out, with one piece of the melody taken out of it's musical context, get's layered and layered into a nice round sort of piece.

So while this is far better than Cube-E, I'd only rate i' 2.5 s'ars. And because it's The Residents, I'll round that up.