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This is a collection of "stuff" from The Residents that were previously only available through download. This music is made up of outtakes, rare live performances, covers and alternate versions. So you really get a variety of everything here and there are a few tracks that are worth getting if you are a Residents fan. There were only about 2000 copies of this album made available and each were hand numbered, so it's probably only possible to get this used for a couple hundred bucks if you're lucky.

Here's the run down on this odd collection. "The Sour Song" is an instrumental that seems to be based on "Our Finest Flowers" which I don't know much about. "1999" is a cover of the Prince song which retains the synthesizer hook that it is famous for, but that's all it retains.....Classic Residents cover with absolutely no timing or enthusiasm in the vocals. One of those covers you just got to hear. "Ninth Rain" is another instrumental, very spare instrumentation (one vibe sounding keyboard) based on "Bridegroom of Blood". "Wanda" is a live performance of "Wanda the Worm Woman" from a live version of "Freak Show", a great example of a crazy live show. "Conceiving Ada" is an intentionally cheesy instrumental. "Paint it Black" is the Rolling Stones cover. This has got the trademark Residents sound with what sounds like a poor man's imitation of Satan on lead vocals.

"Hunters Intro" is another version of the intro on the official Hunters soundtrack. "Eskimo Opera Proposal Excerpt" is from an Eskimo project that never happened, but it is a great track that sounds like a further development of "Eskimo", and worth checking out if you are a lover of that album. Some typical Eskimo vocalizations included. "Walter Westinghouse" is a live version of that track which comes from "Babyfingers". Both male and female vocals are acted out on stage and you get to hear how it sounds. "I Murdered Mommy" is either another version or outtake from that album of the same name. Some screaming at the beginning and sparse soundtrack sounding instrumental. Sounds Art Zoyd-ish. "I Hear Ya Got Religion" is one of the first Residents recordings ever. Sounds like a redneck singing lead with rednecks singing non-harmonics in the background. I guess they have always been crazy. Sounds like they are playing party horns tuned to different keys on the instrumental breaks. "Santa Gamelan" is another version of the many "Santa Dog"s that are out there probably played on a toys from the sound of it, all instrumental with a snippet of Auld Lang Syne for you nostalgic people. "Fire '99/Second Millenium Santa Dog" is even more versions with vocals and etc.

So, as with most Residents collection, this is a novelty more than anything. Plenty of crazy Residents humor, sparse instrumentation and avant garde sound. Some of this became available in other formats after this release, so it's probably more of a completionist collection than anything. And if after reading the last few paragraphs none of this makes sense, then you definitely won't get any of it. Yeah it's good, but it's not cohesive. It sounds like tracks pasted together just because they were not available anywhere but through a download site......oh, wait a minute....The covers are great as is the Eskimo track, but is it worth it to you to try to track this down? Do you have a life? Assess those questions and get back to me. 2 stars.