Legendary art-rockers The Residents proceed over 5 a long time of immersive, avant-garde excellence with Physician Darkish. Their latest album resembles a contemporary rock opera, cut up throughout three acts and taking narrative inspiration from real-life occasions and figures. — set inside a inventive melding of rock, metallic, industrial noise, and past. Orchestral preparations, starting from lush to grandiose, are a distinguished issue as nicely — carried out and orchestrated by Edwin Outwater.
“That is in all probability The Residents most bold challenge shortly,” explains the San Francisco-based band’s spokesperson, Homer Flynn. “It’s primarily based on two information tales. The character of Physician Darkish relies on Physician Kevorkian. He’s a personality The Residents at all times discovered fascinating. There are primarily 3 characters: Physician Darkish, after which two youngsters.”
The latter two characters consult with the 1985 suicide makes an attempt of 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, which prompted a lawsuit towards Judas Priest by the grieving mother and father — alleging the music corrupted their youngsters. The occasions are chronicled within the documentary Dream Deceivers, which the band noticed upon launch and had been fascinated by. Its inspiration comes full circle many a long time later, intertwining that tragedy with Kevorkian’s story.
An introspective tranquility opens the album; forlorn strings, chicken chirping, and sounds of a trickling creek introduce “Prelude / Steel Insanity” with a theatrical pull. Wavering brass tones sign momentum and a touch of ominousness, furthered by growling bass and gritty guitar distortion. Scathing lyrical sentiments — “I hate you! You hate me! I hate you, too!” — complement the punk-ready abrasion to firmly set up the album’s first act, drawn in by a mix of heavy guitar distortion, industrial noise, and metal-forward vigor. The extra ardent rock expanses are sometimes preceded, and complemented by, lovely orchestration that ranges from lush to menacing.
The aptly entitled “Pressure” is very exemplary of the album’s gripping structural ascents and unsettling prowess. Blaring brass and eerie strings, resembling an outdated horror movie, complement a number of layers of vocal expressions. As can also be the case on the resonating “White Guys With Weapons,” the sounds of gunshots incorporate with seamless, delectably jarring percussive enchantment. “Life is only a jizzy pisshole stuffed with farts and empty manholes,” the vocals set free, enjoying as a nihilistic and abrasively poignant push into the “everyone seems to be imitating life,” fade-out within the center. Sounds of heavy sobbing and somber strings observe, along with a broadcast-type snippet that proceed to bolster the Physician Darkish / Kevorkian character.
The album’s second act shines extra highlight on the classical preparations, typically set towards confessional vocal pushes — “I typically take into consideration my mom,” on the mourning “Remembering Mom,” for instance — that proceed a story of Physician Darkish from relatable humanity to mythic energy. Right here and thru the second act, the character performs like a philosophical information of types. “Survived” compels in its contrasts of glory-be illuminated non secular references and darkly foreboding instrumentation, persevering with themes of considering who accountable for tumult — from mother and father to music to faith to society itself. “Calm Earlier than” exudes a relatability amidst plucky strings and warming organs, because the vocals admit “I used to be as soon as similar to you.” Physician Darkish’s narration feels weak and soul-searching right here, probably resembling a gathering of souls between Mark and Physician Darkish; the audible sounds of anguish after which lulling strings — alongside references to decisions inside life — looks like a melding of two tortured inhabitants of their very own undoing.
The ultimate act of Physician Darkish performs cathartically in its fusing of the primary two act’s aesthetics, from heavy rock ardour to orchestral intrigue. “A Selection?” continues alluding to non-public decision-making and feelings from souls in turbulent isolation. Recollections of ache and disgrace — “it’s rising like an enormous, darkish, heavy cloud,” — proceed into industrial textures, brass undercurrents, and additional shot-like rhythmic parts. Album finale “Take Me to the River” brings again the trickling creek and birds-chirping from the opening observe, akin to the cycle of life — starting and ending with relative tranquility, although met with a lot raucousness within the moments in between. “I can see a river not distant,” vocals narrate, craving for the river to “wash me away,” — in hopes for a greater, extra internally peaceable future or subsequent life. One other achievement from The Residents, Physician Darkish is a riveting listening expertise with grippingly thematic narration and eclectic tonal turns.
