The Residents

Compiled as a more "accessible" collection of Residents music to kick off their 30th anniversary as a unit, Petting Zoo might not exactly be the disc to deflower newcomers to the avant-garde world of the eyeballed ones. The disc features edited versions of the more obscure and theatrical/conceptual pieces the group wrote over the last ten to 15 years, ranging from Freakshow to Wormwood and rounded out by some of their true classics from the mid-'70s. The disc does give a preview of their upcoming masterwork Demons Dance Alone, with the inclusion of two tracks from it. Of course, in true Residents fashion, the disc is sequenced in backwards chronological order, where one gets to experience a linear descent from smooth high-fidelity opuses questioning the human condition into raw, quirky, demonically taunting madness by the time they reach the classic track "Constantinople." You may be forced into being a fan after hearing this.