DO NOT BUY THE NEW FLAMING LIPS ALBUM 'EMBRYONIC' YOU WILL DIE ON THE ROAD. If you do buy it, you'll be treated to one or two good songs before listening to the rest of the album on a roadtrip and then be lulled to sleep at the wheel. You will become one of those white roadside crosses.
If you're like me in any way you loudly proclaim that you're extreme and then huddle in a ball of neurosis. You make excuses to not hang out with your friends while at the same time wondering why you haven't developed into that beautiful social butterfly with the charming quips you dream about occasionally when you're not masturbating angrily to Filipino torture-porn. That and whenever The Flaming Lips release an album you get really excited for a few hours and listen to every little bit that you can get your hands on. After that few hours is up you start to wonder why you were getting so excited and begin questioning why you liked them so much in the first place. Then you pop in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, eat something cold from the 'fridge and think about brewing your own soda.
The first point I'm trying to make is that I am very lonely almost all the time. The second point that I'm trying to make is that The Flaming Lips always seem to have one or two neat-o songs on their albums, but the rest remain wholly forgettable. Do they sound good while you're high? HELL YES. I cannot emphasize this point enough. They are amazing and the perfect thing to jive to after taking a huge rip off a 14 inch acrylic abomination (use glass, people so much better and helps local glass-blowers people, people). It's unobtrusive so you can talk, and the lyrics can pass as some sort of conversation inspiring segue to maybe we should get the rotation going again man I GOT THE ICE LAST TIME.
Embryonic was a good name for the album since most of the time the music comes in a steady relaxed pulse and is muted to the point that you wonder if you're trapped behind a uterine wall.
If that's what you're wanting, sweet, go for it, it's perfect. But, if you're a serious music critic, as we all are, you're going to remain resolutely unimpressed. Which brings me to the topic at hand, Embryonic.
Should you be excited. Sure, I guess. IF YOU LIKE JAZZ. Which is cool. I love it. Some of these songs are fantastic. Take Aquarius Sabotage for example, absolutely phenomenal (it should be noted that this is more like math-rock than it is jazz). The problem is that most of the great music here takes a step back and fails to develop into more than half a song. There are pleasant tones, with Wayne Coyne's lilting falsetto filling your ear, but where is the challenge? WHERE IS THE DEVELOPMENT?
Don't get me wrong, I love the Flaming lips. I love them right in their faces. The issue isn't with them, it's with me. Their previous albums, the Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics, it's all fantastic. Lovely even, drops of genius and new sounds that tickle my brain so that it ejaculates YES! Over and over have left me in a permanent state of Flaming Lips withdrawal that this album just doesn't help. Rather than purchase the whole album I would focus on Aquarius Sabotage and...... actually Aquarius Sabotage is the only song that I would buy individually. Maybe Convinced of the Hex if you're a die-hard Flaming Lips fan, or trembling silver hands. Overall, it's a bunch of interesting music that gets covered up with static, theoretically enhancing the acid-rock quality, but in practice making it lethal on the highway.
Monday, October 12, 2009
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Thats whats to great about you Tom, you just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THE flamming lips. I HOPE YOU GET CANCER
ReplyDeleteAhhhh yeah, I was the exact same way for At War With The Mystics. Searching SoulSeek for days, trying to get a real copy, could not even wait for the real release date, then boom. Total let down (like an average sized penis).
ReplyDeleteyou certainly have a gift for the metaphor.
ReplyDeletei will check out this album if i ever feel a need to get in touch with my inner fetus.