A Pleasant Surpirse From The Flaming Lips

FINALLY!!!

I had my life thoroughly changed by The Flaming Lips' "Soft Bulletin" that album made me re-think every musical idea I ever had. It was just after they had released "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" and my friend had a copy of that record and listened to it. I enjoyed some of it and another friend suggested I listen to "Soft Bulletin" it floored me. I played it for people expecting them to explode with excitement that way I did and a few did (others didn't give a shit because they were more interested in NOFX, which there's nothing wrong with). I could never get fully into " Yoshimi..." but was still eagerly awaiting their next album which saw the movie "Fearless Freaks" released before it and I was in love and moved by that movie. THEN on the day they finally released "At War With The Mystics" I wanted to personally insult and spit on the faces of everyone involved for shitting in my excited ears.

Though I was extremely hurt (and even refused to ever see them live on account of that awful lifeless souless crap they released), when I went on Allmusic.com this morning and glanced over at the New Releases section I saw a 4 1/2 star review for "Embroyonic" which intrigued me. I read the review and it caught my interest as to what they could be doing. I had been previously mislead by the words of reviewers when it said that "At War With The Mystics" was like Syd Barratt and Black Sabbath making a record (it was more like shit and shit making shit). So I went and looked for means of downloading it for free that way if it was awful I'd simply delete it and would have wasted no more than a few minutes and temporarily some space on my laptop.

As I uploaded the album into my I-Tunes I was very prepared to shoot it down and hate it and damn myself and the previous reviewer for having any interest in this... but when the music started I shut the fuck up. It was playing in my living room with 2 roommates and a guest around. Had I loudly played something shitty I would have been embarrassed. The first song was nothing like a Flaming Lips song, well not like anything that had been doing recently. It was dark and pulsating and Wayne Coyne didn't really sound like himself, but it didn't sound forced. I have now listened to the record 4 times in a row and it hasn't gotten old.

The album is very long (18 tracks, 70 Minutes) but it never drags. I sat and listened to the whole album waiting for a slump, an awful song ANYTHING to shoot it down with and I received nothing. It was really entertaining and well done. Really epic, but not their usual epic sound. Some songs remind me of their earlier dirtier albums (which I love) and there are traces of Can all over the place.

I don't want to go song by song and describe the album, but I will say this record has shared tracks with Karen O (the most famous and boring circus clown in Indie Rock) and MGMT (do I need to shoot them down? you know... whatever I'd say you probably had something worse in your head anyway...) and all those tracks are still amazing and fitting to the album. That's quite a feat!

To wrap this ramble up, THANK YOU FLAMING LIPS for finally living up to the ideal I built in my head from 5 amazing albums back to back (In a Priest Driven Ambulance-Soft Bulletin) of a band who could reinvent itself and never sound forced or boring. I love pleasant surprises, thank you kindly.