Intruders

***Intruders*** is an album by The Residents, released via MVD Audio, Cherry Red and Psychofon Records on October 19th 2018.

*Intruders* is a concept album focusing on "the unseen and the uncontrollable spirits stuck in the seams of our minds".

## History

*Intruders* was first announced in 2017 following the release of *The Ghost of Hope* and at the beginning of their In Between Dreams tour, as well as another, blues-influenced album with the working title *Dyin' Dog*.

The album was recorded intermittently by the group with the earliest demos being recorded in 2012. It features contributions from long-time collaborators Carla Fabrizio, Nolan Cook, and Eric Drew Feldman, as well as Laurie Hall, Peter Whitehead and Sivan Lioncub.

Despite parts of the album pre-dating the retirement of Charles Bobuck and Hardy Fox from The Residents, it has not been confirmed by The Cryptic Corporation if contributions from either feature on the final product. Fox passed away on October 30th, 2018 (eleven days after the release of *Intruders*) following a brief illness.

## Concept

The concept of *Intruders* is described by the Cryptics as follows:

*"...inspired by the persistence of obsession, 'Intruders' are seen as alternate beings stalking the corners of our consciousness. The album's original songs all pivot around the unseen and the uncontrollable spirits stuck in the seams of our minds. Whether it's ghosts, angels, aliens, ex-lovers or an angry old woman with a bittersweet smile, we never know who or what will wedge itself into the darker recesses of our minds. Hated, loved, or merely tolerated, we all have Intruders."*

## Release

Simultaneous with the album's release on October 19th 2018, an animated music video for "Voodoo Doll", echoing the album's cover art, was uploaded to YouTube, and a limited 7" single was released by Psychofon Records which includes a non-album track entitled "The Intruder" and a demo version of "Voodoo Doll".

## Track listing

### CD edition

1. Bobbie's Burning Blues (5:13)
2. Voodoo Doll (2:58)
3. The Scarecrow (5:45)
4. Frank's Lament (3:40)
5. Missing Me (2:43)
6. Still Needy? (6:49)
7. The Other (3:03)
8. Good Vibes (5:09)
9. Endless & Deep (3:31)
10. Running Away (3:34)
11. Shadows (5:51)

### Vinyl edition

#### Side A

1. Bobbie's Burning Blues (5:13)
2. Voodoo Doll (2:59)
3. Endless & Deep (3:31)
4. Still Needy? (6:49)

#### Side B

1. The Other (3:08)
2. Good Vibes (5:08)
3. Running Away (3:32)
4. Shadows (5:50)

## Credits

* **Written, Arranged & Performed By** The Residents
* **With Special Guests**: Eric Drew Feldman, Nolan Cook, Carla Fabrizio, Sivan Lionclub, Peter whitehead & Laurie Hall
* **Produced By**: Eric Drew Feldman & The Residents
* **Mixed By**: Gabriel Sheppard & Eric Drew Feldman
* **Mastered By:** Mark Chalecki at Little Red Book Mastering
* **Published By**: Pale Pachyderm Publishing
* **Cover & Art By** Poor Know Graphics
* **Residents Photo By**: Hein Fokker

## Liner notes

Ghosts, angels, ex-lovers, doppelgängers... we all have psychic interlopers, beings - real, imagined or projected - taking up residence in our psyches, occupying dubious mental space despite our often urgent desires to cast them out. Inflamed by the persistence of obsession, *Intruders* are seen as alternate, bodiless beings stalking the shadow worlds of our minds. The original songs contained on this album all pivot around these unseen and uncontrollable spirits, seemingly stuck in the seams of our souls.

The idea of the double, or doppelgänger, is a familiar theme throughout history. Shelly, Byron and Dostoyevsky all used the idea of duplicates in plays, novels and poetry, and Abraham Lincoln is said to have seen his doppelgänger in a mirror shortly before his death. According to The Bible, Lot never forgot the pair of angels that saved him from the destruction of Sodom, and how many of us have been captivated by images of a dead alien supposedly found in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947? But whether it's evil twins, an angry cab driver or the so-called President of the United States, we never know who or what will wedge itself into the darker recesses of our minds.

Hated, loved, or merely tolerated, *Intruders* are real...

Aren't they?

## See also

* "The Intruder"
* In Between Dreams
* *Metal, Meat & Bone*

## Notes

1. ↑ The liner notes refer to the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (here misspelled "Shelly"), who wrote of a doppelganger in the poem *Prometheus Unbound*. Shelley claimed to have been frequently haunted by his own doppelganger in the years leading up to his death; Shelley's double was even reported to have been seen by his friends on occasions when Shelley was nowhere near. Sightings of the doppelganger ceased following Shelley's death by drowning on July 8th 1822.
2. ↑ The English Romantic poet Lord Byron often used doppelganger imagery to denote the duality of man, reflecting his own long-standing fascination with the concept. Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky depicted a doppelganger in his 1846 novel *The Double*.
3. ↑ 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln was reported to have claimed that he saw a pale, ghostly double of his own face in a mirror, variously either on the night of his election on November 6th 1860, or shortly thereafter. His wife Mary (who did not see the apparition) believed it was an omen, interpreting it to mean that her husband would be re-elected to a second term of office, but would not survive to the end of the second term. True to his wife's prediction, Lincoln was re-elected for a second term in office in November 1864, and was assassinated five months later.
4. ↑ The flight of Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, a Biblical story depicted in the Book of Genesis, was previously interpreted by The Residents in the song "Fire Fall", from their 1998 album *Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible*.
5. ↑ The liner notes refer to a 17 minute black and white film released in 1995 by British entrepreneur Ray Santilli, which was said to depict an authentic autopsy on the body of an alien from the "flying disc" crash site near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The film was broadcast on the Fox network in August 1995, as part of a documentary, *Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?*. In 2006, Santilli stated that the footage was not authentic, claiming that it was a staged reconstruction of real alien autopsy footage shown to him in 1992, which had deteriorated and could no longer be used - Santilli has repeated this claim as recently as 2021, despite no evidence of this earlier footage surfacing to date.

## External links and references

* Intruders *at The Residents Historical*
* Intruders *deluxe CD edition at Cherry Red Records*
* Intruders *limited edition vinyl at Psychofon Records*
* Intruders *at Discogs*

1. ↑ "OUT NOW | The Residents release ‘INTRUDERS’ today! Available on Limited Edition Vinyl and CD / Hardback Book", Cherry Red Records official website, October 19th 2018

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**Related articles**
The Residents discography (W.E.I.R.D., 1979) · Ralph Records discography