Five American Portraits

Ultimately, what listeners make of this set of audio portraits may well come down to what they make of conceptual art itself. For those who follow Keenan’s line, the album can be seen as another deconstruction of the illusory relationship between words, music, and emotion that popular music supposedly feeds us.

If the last Red Krayola With Art & Language record, "Sighs Trapped By Liars," surprised with its gentility, Thompson’s dialectical relationship to/with form pretty much dictated that its follow-up had to jut out at right angles from its predecessor.

It's sort of a perfect concept for Thompson: it's not particularly clever or abstract but to actually gather the efforts, time, and resources to release this album-- straight-faced-- seems mad. At this point, though, those who delight in Thompson's particular madness will need no explanations.

Five American Portraits will not earn the band new fans, most likely, and may only inspire a spin or two from experienced fans. But this is a record that has its merits, mostly due to its odd, hypnotic concept and benign perversity.

Five American Portraits, another collaboration with conceptual art group Art & Language, combines the two [awkward rock music and high conceptualism]: these simple, rough portraits of George W Bush, Wile E Coyote, etc, while each song musically quotes relevant tunes. [Mar 2010, p.93]