I've only ever liked one album by Flaming Lips, and that's Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
Chris and I picked their new one up based on some awesome song that was playing in a music store in London and I just had a chance to listen to the whole thing.
I still only like one Flaming Lips album.
To start, I will say this: this album should NOT have come out in April; it should have been a winter release...a nuclear winter release.
The album opens with "Look...The Sun Is Rising", which has a great, hard, crunchy drum beat and the first few tracks sound like they're being played through filthy iron filings (the whole album really), which is great; an excellent texture, scummy and fuzzy and dirty...but then...nothing happens.
On the fourth track, "You Lust", a lot of nothing happens (for about thirteen minutes) and I almost lost my patience and gave the whole thing up; I was about halfway through the album and still waiting for something to kick in. I understand subtlety. But I also understand flatness. And a filthy-iron-filing-covered flatness is still flatness.
There is some interesting stuff on "Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die"* and "Turning Violet", but nothing else really grabs me. The most dynamic song on the album isn't really, technically, on the album; it's called "The Sun Blows Up Today" and it's on a 3" CD which came in the same case as the album, and even that's only dynamic for a minute or two before it begins to repeat itself.
I will say that, after experiencing The Terror, the second track on the CD-ette, a cover of "All You Need Is Love" is absolutely welcomed...if a bit spooky.
I don't know. I'm sure everyone else in the world will find this epic and amazing and sing its praises until I feel (more so) like a worthless, artless shitbag, but, well, I'm just not in that camp. I mean, they nailed the mood and did a great job of constantly reminding us that the sun is, ostensibly, just a huge bomb that has yet to detonate, but, yeah, no, sorry.
I'll give it another try...probably...before the sun explodes.
* There's lots of really, really dark lyrics to match the sound, almost to the point of parody; as is the case on "Always There...In Our Hearts".
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