Eskimo (album)

Eskimo is the sixth studio album by American art rock group the Residents.^[2][3] The album was originally supposed to follow 1977's Fingerprince; however, due to many delays and arguments with management, it was not released until 1979.

Eskimo
Studio album by the Residents
Released	September 26, 1979
Recorded	April 1976 – May 1979
Genre	Avant-garde[1] ambient[1] post-punk[1]
Length	39:01
Label	Ralph
Producer	The Residents
The Residents chronology
Duck Stab (1978) Eskimo (1979) Commercial Album (1980)

The pieces on Eskimo feature home-made instruments and chanting against backdrops of wind-like synthesizer noise and miscellaneous sound effects. The work is programmatic, each piece pairing music with text detailing a corresponding pseudo-ethnographic narrative.^[4] While Eskimo is officially maintained to be a true historical document of life in the Arctic, the stories are deliberately absurd fictions only loosely based in actual Inuit culture, and the chanting is a combination of gibberish and commercial slogans. The album satirizes ignorance toward and mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.^[5]

Diskomo

A companion piece, Diskomo, was released in 1980 as a 12-inch single, featuring a remix of the songs backed by a disco beat. In 1988, Diskomo was covered by Belgian new beat group L&O, and retitled "Even Now". Diskomo 2000, a follow-up EP featuring the original remix, its B-side (Goosebump, a collection of children's songs played on toy musical instruments), and several other versions, was released in 2000. The EP's title track, "Diskomo 2000" redoes Diskomo in the style of "Even Now".

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[7]
Ultimate Guitar	[8]

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel wrote that "Eskimo is truly a new branch on the rock and roll family tree, truly original music, a new sound."^[9] Spin called it "an album-length threnody for wind machine and invented language".^[10]

The Rolling Stone Album Guide deemed Eskimo "a dreary and dank concept album."^[6] The Spin Alternative Record Guide called it "creepy and funny" and "the Residents' zenith."^[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by the Residents.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Walrus Hunt"	4:01
2.	"Birth"	4:33
3.	"Arctic Hysteria"	5:57
4.	"The Angry Angakok"	5:20
Total length:		20:47

Side two

No.	Title	Length
5.	"A Spirit Steals a Child"	8:44
6.	"The Festival of Death"	10:20
Total length:		19:56

1987 CD bonus tracks

Tracks 7-10 taken from the 1979 album Subterranean Modern. The album also featured the music of San Francisco bands Chrome, MX-80 Sound and Tuxedomoon.

No.	Title	Length
7.	"I Left My Heart in San Francisco"	2:02
8.	"Dumbo the Clown (Who Loved Christmas)"	2:07
9.	"Is He Really Bringing Roses? (The Replacement)"	2:34
10.	"Time's Up"	2:54
Total length:		48:38

2019 pREServed edition bonus tracks

Disc One

No.	Title	Length
7.	"Eskimo (1978 demo)"	14:19
8.	"Eskimo acapella suite"	20:52
Total length:		1:14:12

Disc Two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Kenya"	2:28
2.	"Middle East Dance (from ICE2)"	3:22
3.	"Scottish Rhapsody"	2:55
4.	"Diskomo (demo)"	3:00
5.	"Diskomo"	7:55
6.	"Disaster"	3:51
7.	"Plants"	3:15
8.	"Farmers"	5:26
9.	"Twinkle"	2:01
10.	"Heart in SF"	2:08
11.	"I Left My Heart in San Francisco"	2:02
12.	"Dumbo the Clown (Who Loved Christmas)"	2:09
13.	"Is He Really Bringing Roses? (The Replacement)"	2:36
14.	"Time's Up"	2:56
15.	"The Sleeper"	3:27
16.	"Eskimo suite (1982 rehearsal)"	8:22
17.	"Diskomo (1982 rehearsal)"	2:41
18.	"The Festival of Death (live 1986)"	4:38
19.	"Diskomo (live in San Francisco, 1987)"	3:18
20.	"Eskimo Opera Proposal"	5:27
Total length:		1:13:57

Personnel

• The Residents – vocals, instruments, effects
• Snakefinger – guitar
• Chris Cutler – percussion
• Don Preston – synthesizers