![]() To say that Embryonic demands repeated listens is an understatement-there are a lot of ideas here. Perhaps the best track here is the album’s centerpiece, “Powerless,” a near seven-minute epic starting with spare keyboard and bass textures that envelope Coyne’s haunted vocals, before being interrupted by an extended quasi-Indian flavored guitar solo that sounds like it is the product of a demented Neil Young on a bad acid trip. And then there is the light-hearted silliness of “I Can Be a Frog,” with Coyne singing, “She said/‘I can be a frog/I can be a bat/I can be a bear/Or I can be a cat,’” with each animal’s mention followed by the voice of a woman making the sounds those animals make. “If” is two minutes of dime store philosophy with singer Wayne Coyne intoning, “People are evil/It’s true/But on the other side/They can be gentle too,” as if in meditated prayer, while “Worm Mountain” is led by big, dumb, bass-heavy stoner rock groove. The opening track, “Convinced of the Hex,” is all guitar stabs, electronic fuzz, and drum fury, while “The Impulse” prefers loungy, electronic textures and affected vocals. At 18 tracks and well over an hour running time, it is everything you have come to expect from The Flaming Lips-psychedelic soundscapes, ethereal textures, electronic touches, falsetto vocals, philosophical musings, and so much more. These days The Flaming Lips are elder statesman in a much younger person’s scene, but they continue to push boundaries with the best of them.Įmbryonic is the band’s 12th album (not counting 2008’s DVD/CD Christmas on Mars), and it’s a monster. That album changed the game for experimental independent musicians and helped pave the way for indie rock to come. Till then.It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since The Flaming Lips released their genre-busting masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. ![]() I’ll probably listen to this album again when I’m very high, very sad, or both. ![]() Embryonic finds these wild-eyed Okies sounding even more adventurous and less eager to please than at any time since 1997’s four-CD experimental sonic goof, Zaireeka. And also give thanks that the Flaming Lips are the ones who did. Thank jeebus that a nonplatinum major-label act still gets to do such a thing. Two discs, bum trips, and not even an accidental hook. Dickian thrill of eavesdropping on an android’s nightmare. And while there are sections where the playing heats up, Dave Fridmann’s strangely isolating production, the disorienting bass-heavy mix, and Scurlock’s wild drum spooging sucks the humanity out of the musical mise-en-scene, leaving behind the creepy, Philip K. Only a very misanthropic baby cold fall asleep to the disquieting lullabies of “Evil” and “If,” both of which adopt futility as their lyrical outlook. In the past, as on 2002’s “Do You Realize?,” the band leavened its sour news with sweet music. (MGMT are on the album too, but good luck finding them.) Karen O pops up on the playful “I Can Be a Frog,” aping Coyne’s own mentions of jungle animals with impressions of the same, but her contribution was recorded on scratchy voicemail. “The Impulse” conjures a sexy Quiet Storm groove but cloaks its melody under a vocoder. Meanwhile, on the droning “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” where he intones, “We can be free to be slaves now,” his sepulchral Curtis impression is unmistakable.īut this band of bunny costumes and giant bubbles hasn’t completely abandoned good feelings. The singer’s dour sloganeering - his admission on “Silver Trembling Hands” that “Nature makes us all compete” is what passes for a hopeful message - comes off as an indirect Ian Curtis homage. Elsewhere, Coyne’s thousand-yard-stare vocals and the brittle keyboard of “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine” and “See the Leaves” partake of Unknown Pleasures‘ death-trip seduction. ![]() The spooky, aqueous one-chord keyboard vamps and roiling bass lines of Bitches Brew are everywhere, reaching bad juju perfection on the seven-minute “Powerless,” which climaxes with a gnarled guitar solo that sounds like Dick Dale forgetting how to play. In pre-release interviews, Coyne has described the new music as “Miles Davis meets Joy Division.” He’s not far off. Yet, despite the black-hole vibe - and especially following 2006’s stiff, somewhat predictable At War With the Mystics - Embryonic works. Also Read The Flaming Lips, Haim, The Roots Set for ‘The Big Climate Thing’ Festival
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