Despite their tour for 2020’s Metal, Meat and Bone not going as planned, the Residents have released yet another album. The album, Triple Trouble, serves as the soundtrack to the group’s new movie of the same name. With a discography of 50+ releases, not all of them can be good. Triple Trouble, unfortunately, isn’t one of their best nor is it a proper album. Still, there’s some things worth talking about regarding this release.
The Movie’s Plot
Triple Trouble is a movie about a priest named Randy Rose Jr, son of deceased Residents singer Randy Rose. Junior’s life changes one day after discovering footage from the unfinished Residents movie Vileness Fats. When he sees that his life is similar to that of Vileness Fats character St. Steven, he has a breakdown that causes him to leave the priesthood. Despite finding a job as a plumber, Junior becomes more frightened when a white fungus starts to clogs drains all over the city.
The Album
The soundtrack for Triple Trouble is basically a seven track album filled with incidental music from the movie. From time to time, dialogue from the movie can be heard. Considering this writer has not seen the movie, it’s hard to make any sense of this album. While the Residents albums usually make conceptual albums, this feels like you have to see the movie before listening to the soundtrack. It’s somewhat similar to the group’s soundtrack to the Discovery Channel series Hunters: when you hear the music, it sounds like it should be playing the background for a movie or TV show.
Now does this make the album bad? Not necessarily. Musically, the group are in fine form and the signature Residents sound can be heard throughout the album. The production is strong, with musician Eric Drew Feldman being credited as producer. The music here sounds good, even if it’s mostly instrumental.
Conclusion
This is a rare occasion where I have no choice but to put myself in the article here.
Triple Trouble is a difficult album to review: I usually don’t listen to soundtracks before seeing the movie. If I had my choice, I would’ve liked to have seen the movie first. However, this is not possible at this present time. The movie has had a very limited screening earlier this year and there hasn’t been a word if it’ll be released for streaming or purchase. I’d recommend my fellow Residents fans to hold off on listening to the album until you’ve seen the movie. Whether the album improves after this, I’m not sure. If anything from my end, I can say that listening to this soundtrack has left me wanting to see the movie even more. For the time being (as much as I adore the Residents), I can only give this a half rating.
I'm a writer/journalist with a passion for music and pop culture. Having graduated from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 2014, I've been looking for a platform in which I can share my passions. Since 2009, I've been posting to my own blog- The Walrus' Music Blog- via Blogger. I'm also the author of two self-published books, "The Camp: Stories from the Summer" and "The College: Stories from King's." Together, the two books cover the story of my life from 2004 to 2014. I've been lucky enough to interview several of my favorite musicians over the years and go to concerts from time to time. I'm also very devoted to the CBS reality TV show Survivor, which I started watching in 2002 when its fourth season started. I currently live in New Jersey.