Animal Lover was the first Residents album I didn't purchase immediately after it was released. This is partly due to the fact that my first Residents collection was stolen and I didn't have the heart to start all over again, but also because the quality of The Residents' releases was plummeting at a dizzying rate. I've eventually gathered up enough courage to slowly shop around for the group's albums once again and my girlfriend was the one that gave me a head start :) I received this album and Freak Show for my birthday. How she managed to find the right editions for both these albums is short of a miracle considering the panoply of different editions that exist for each album! Although I don't believe The Residents will ever sound as great as they did in the early years, Animal Lovers remains a great effort which demonstrates that they are still willing to experiment quite a bit. As long as they don't rely exclusively on synthesizers, I'll be quite happy!