1998

WORMWOOD
CURIOUS STORIES FROM THE BIBLE

Album

In the Beginning Fire Fall They are the Meat Melancholy Clumps How to Get a Head Cain and Abel Mr. Misery Tent Peg in the Temple God's Magic Finger Spilling the Seed Dinah and the Unclean Skin Bathsheba Bathes Bridegroom of Blood Hanging by his Hair The Seven Ugly Cows Burn Baby Burn KILL HIM! I Hate Heaven Judas Saves Revelation

HISTORICAL CONTEXT*

Raised in America's Deep South, the Residents had been immersed in the Bible at very early ages. As they grew older, however, they found it interesting how many people held up the Bible as the bastion of goodness and purity when in fact it graphically recounts some rather gruesome and depraved stories. One book is even a long erotic poem. This willful ignorance was sad, reasoned the Residents, both because good is only measured in comparison to evil, and because some of those baser Biblical episodes made for really great stories.

Thus inspired, the Residents spent a year researching before they wrote, recorded and released Wormwood in the fall of 1998, their first project specifically designed for studio album since 1992. Each song was based on a Bible story, with the CD's liner notes citing and paraphrasing each story to provide context for the corresponding lyrics.

Wormwood was the foundation of the Residents' most ambitious and successful tour yet. The Residents wrote new arrangements for the live show, which they studio-recorded in Berlin in 1999 and released as Roadworms.

REVIEW

RATING: 4

Verily, I say unto you: this album sucketh.

For starters, the theme I detect here is "sex and violence go hand-in-hand with religious faith." Well, they said that already on God in Three Persons, and said it there with much more power and elegance. So why the Wormwood retread, unless they feel the need to dumb this message down?

But that's not really the problem. Oddly enough, I think the problem is that they did a year's research before they started Wormwood. It seems to have detached the group far too much from the subject matter, made their approach to the project very sterile and academic.

At least that's my best explanation for why the best songs on this disc are the bland, limp ones, like "How to Get a Head," "God's Magic Finger," or "I Hate Heaven" (the closest Wormwood comes to a peak). The worst are the ugly and unlistenable ("KILL HIM!" and the horrendous "Dinah and the Unclean Skin"), and the common thread running through all songs is cynicism and condescension. Fact is, this may be the first time in history that a CD's liner notes are better than the music: the liners are funny, concise, and thought-provoking...when you get past their smarminess. (I love the Residents' humor, but not when it pretends to be noble.)

Look, I'm really not a religious guy, but I know enough to say that "humanizing" means "showing a balanced picture." If you want to talk about the contradictions inherent in the Bible, well, (1) get in line; and (2) talk about BOTH SIDES. If you can't measure goodness without bad, you can't judge badness without good. That's how it works.

But you know what? I'd forgive it all...if every song wasn't so bloody flat and predictable and...STALE! Come on, Rezzies! Was Wormwood intended to be your salute to John Tesh?

Ooh. Even I thought that last was really mean. Please, please forget I said it. Also forget Wormwood: buy Roadworms and Demons Dance Alone, and pretend this one never happened.

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