The Residents - "Doctor Dark" : A mind-bending new release

Cheerfully reflecting humanity's weirdness back at it, The Residents have never succumbed to expectation. Doctor Dork is the mysterious San Francisco crew's 47th studio album, and even by their standards, it's one of their strangest and most satisfying conceits to date.

A three-act concept piece recounting the tale of two young heavy metal fans and their encounters with the malevolent visionary of its title, Doctor Dark plays out like an extended, psychedelic nightmare, with all the bewildering sonic tricks and perverse poetry that fans have come to expect. Impressively, it is also several degrees weirder than anything they have released this century.

Dotted with bursts of clangourous, industrial metal and warped classical interludes, it's a twisted modern opera fed through The Residents' oddball, lysergic prism. Quite what it all means is anyone's guess, but with inspirations ranging from euthanasia advocate Jack 'Doctor Death' Kervorkian to Judas Priest's brush with a censorious US justice system, Doctor Dark is never less than fascinating and immersive. Well into their sixth decade, The Residents still excel at being extraordinary.