Residents – Wormwood

Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible is a concept album released in 1998 by avant-garde musicians The Residents
 
The album’s purpose is to retell some of the more “curious” stories in the Bible, in order to give a greater understanding of them

Though some of the Bible is abysmal and boring, much of it is entertaining and important reading. The Residents have tackled this book in all its complexity without the responsibility of the scholar. Though many months have gone into research, the intent of the music and lyrics remain within the realm of the inspired poet.

The stories and ideas represented here are definitely in the Bible. The desire is to neither vilify nor sanctify the book, but to allow it to be humanized. For the Bible to be looked upon as spiritually uplifting is good and useful, but that view overlooks the Bible’s abundant images of plague, torture, and cruelty. It is this dichotomy that gives balance and substance to the book. Without both, the dark and the light, there is no measure of either, only the bland reassurances that pass for organized religion today.

Drawing inspiration from the likes of fellow innovators including Harry Partch, Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart, the Residents channelled the breadth of American music into their idiosyncratic, satiric vision, their mercurial blend of electronics, distortion, avant-jazz, classical symphonies and gratingly nasal vocals reinterpreting everyone from John Philip Sousa to James Brown while simultaneously expanding the boundaries of theatrical performance and multimedia interaction.

TRACKLISTING
    In the Beginning
    Fire Fall
    They Are the Meat
    Meloncholy 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