Tweedles is a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 by The Residents

The Residents

The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....

 released on October 31, 2006.
The CD is accompanied by a two-part book: the first half consists of the album's spoken lines, and the second half contains the lyrics to the songs.

It was recorded in 2006 when The Residents were invited by a friend in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 to try out his new recording studios. As The Residents' own studio was undergoing maintenance to make it earthquake-resistant and could not be used for a year, they took the opportunity to record a new album.

Concept

Tweedles tells the story of a sexual predator

Sexual predator

The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...

 from a first person perspective

First-person narrative

First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

. The character is shown contemplating his internal conflicts, lack of empathy, and romantic idealism that he ultimately cannot attain. Towards the end of the album it is revealed that "Tweedles" is the name of a clown alter-ego the narrator would have created if he'd succeeded in becoming an entertainer.

Track listing

1. "Dreams" - 3:50
2. "Almost Perfect" - 4:04
3. "Mark of the Male" - 2:14
4. "Life" - 3:35
5. "Isolation" - 4:17
6. "Stop Signs" - 6:04
7. "Elevation" - 4:51
8. "Forgiveness" - 1:29
9. "Insincere" - 2:06
10. "The Perfect Lover" - 3:30
11. "Brown Cow" - 5:18
12. "Sometimes" - 3:07
13. "Ugly (at the End)" - 3:19
14. "Keep Talkin'" - 3:47
15. "Shame on Me" - 6:45
16. "Susie Smiles" - 2:36