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This album isn't actually out in stores yet [ed. note: or at least it wasn't when this review was written...], but you can listen to it online here, and Mike and I went out to a Flaming Lips listening party last week at the Showbox here in Seattle.
It was a pretty nice soiree, with chairs set up and pink balloons everywhere. And the copy of the new CD that we listened to featured commentary from the band in between each song. Some of it was unintelligible, and Mike and I were straining our ears to make out what they were saying, but the stuff that did come through was super-interesting! (I'll share some of it below in my review.)
And then we got to see the trailer for the upcoming Lips' movie Christmas on Mars, and as I said to Mike, someone at Warner Bros. must've lost a bet to the Lips, 'cause I can't believe this thing is being made on their dime! I love the Flaming Lips with all my heart, but damn, this thing looks freaky!!! The trailer was followed by another viewing of the documentary The Flaming Lips Have Landed. Then they had a contest, and it was so seriously lame. A representative from Hellfire Ltd. (their management company) was there, and this guy in the audience shouted "Bruce McCullough" at him, and Mike and I seriously laughed.
So, anyway!!! Here we have the long-awaited new LP from the Flaming Lips. Long-awaited by me, most definitely. As our readers might already know, I am madly in love with their 1999 release The Soft Bulletin. That album is such a masterpiece, I couldn't imagine how they would ever top it. The cool thing is: they didn't even try. While The Soft Bulletin was a tender-hearted reflection spurred by his father's passing from cancer, this album is a crazy themed album about a young girl named Yoshimi who must battle the Pink Robots, but then the robot falls in love with her and decides to kill itself rather than killing her. Is that wild, or what?
But it still has the same enormous heart that all Flaming Lips release has. A gorgeous blend of acoustic pop and electronic weirdness, with Wayne Coyne's warm southern vocals. Not a huge departure from their usual sound, but definitely exploring some new ideas (like in "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. II"). Here are some random tidbits from the audio commentary we heard at the listening party:
• The Yoshimi in question is the girl from The Boredoms, who they met on the Lollapalooza tour many years ago. Wayne says she's an incredible musician, and is featured on the album screeching Yoko-Ono-style on "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. II" and I think in one of the last tracks, as well.
• When Wayne was recording demos on his four-track, he was using old tapes from their infamous Parking Lot experiment. At the beginning and end of "Fight Test", a voice says "The test begins now..." and that was, as Wayne put it, "a happy accident".
• I'm not sure if this was a joke, but apparently, they wanted to get James Earl Jones to do the "The test begins now..." bit.
• "Are You A Hypnotist?" is not an LSD-inspired song. Wayne says he doesn't use drugs, but he found from his few experiments with acid that it leads to nothing but "diarrhea and brain damage". This song was actually inspired from that scene in "It's a Wonderful Life" where Jimmy Stewart says to the angel, "Are you a hypnotist?"
• "It's Summertime" is a song that was written for the sisters of a Japanese friend of theirs who mysteriously and suddenly passed away. Here's a direct quote from Wayne from the Hellfire website: "It's Summertime and I can understand if you still feel sad/It's Summertime and though it's hard to see it's true possibilities" and what I meant was this - the aims and appreciations of life are the best defense against death and the summertime when there is such an explosion of life - everything bursting ripe - this distraction - this noticing of life erupting all around could give them comfort. I know it did for me. So, I exclaimed "Look outside - I know that you'll recognize it's summertime!!" - not to be some cosmic hippie solution - there is no answer - just a change...but better to express sorrow and experience sadness than to let inner emotions inflate to the point of despair - despair only leads to more death. For it's bad enough that something wonderful in your life has left you - but to fall into despair - despair does not allow you to even enjoy what is still living...
• One of the songs (can't remember the title) sounds like Sade, and they know it. (janice.07.02)
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