It's easily one of their greatest acheivements...concluding through musical means that all pop music is suited for little but background music for commercials...

...eliminate the 2 minutes of the repeated verse/chorus and you end up with a one minute song that essentially becomes a jingle, falling perfectly into the length of time of the average television ad...

...they covered so much ground on that album it was astonishing. 40 standout tracks, all unique in their diversity, on the same album -- most bands can hardly manage that in a a career. Had they worked and extended the forty tracks they would have easily been seen as masterpieces in their own right, but then this would have completely destroyed the concept of the album; instead, we're given mere glimpses into 40 miraculous tunes...what a bold move it was in 1980!

Anybody who likes The Residents' "Commercial" album should try to track down THE SPACE NEGROS. This was a long-running project by Erik Lindgren of the Boston-based avant-garde jazz/prog outfit Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. BSOTM is has been distributed by Cuneiform about 12 years, but I don't know how well The Space Negros (sic.) got around. Anyway, he/they were very, erm, "Residential" sounding. The better part of Space Negros was released on two CDs, "Dig Archeology I," and "Dig Archeology II." Some digging around on the web might yield a copy or two!

^^ I'll have to check that one out.

I'm wondering if you've heard Renaldo and the Loaf, CF? In terms of sheer ability I'd almost place them above the Residents in terms of overall sound if it weren't for the massive quality and influence of the Residents catalogue and their obvious impact on R&TL.