Remakes for 20 Year Anniversary
In 1992, The Residents reached 20 years since their first official release, the "Santa Dog" EP. But instead of just putting out a compilation of previous recordings, they took certain melodies and lyrics from existing songs and recorded them to make new songs. And the results are different enough to make "Our Finest Flowers", a whole album of "new" excellent material. For example, "Blue Tongues" combines elements of the songs "Blue Rosebuds" and "Smelly Tongues", while "Kick a Picnic" is a much darker reworking of Snakefinger's "Picnic in the Jungle" which adds the "Kick a Cat today!" refrain heard on Santa Dog and Vileness Fats. If you know your Residents catalog (along with their collaboration work with Snakefinger and Renaldo & The Loaf), you can probably guess some of the others. My personal favorite tracks are "He Also Serves", "Six Amber Things", "Perfect Goat" and one of their most emotional-sounding songs ever, "Ship of Fools".