The Flaming Lips...

I have a suspicion all the charity money will go to purchasing headdresses for all the animals in veterinary care.

Charlotte Church:

So what purpose does this record serve? Even the Crazy Frog had the purpose of earning its creators huge wads of cash. By pledging the profits of this record to an Oklahoma City animal charity, Flaming Lips have decided not to raise awareness for a universal concern, and as laudable as it is to be supporting any charity, it does seem like another missed opportunity. It does not satirise or pastiche, it offers nothing new that hasn’t been employed to greater effect on previous Flaming Lips records. It is no accomplishment at all, as far as I can see. There is no thought and no purpose. What the shitting hell is the point of this record?

http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/12/15/20081215_wayne_coyne_mars_33.jpg

hello my name is wayne ask me about my point

also wayne coyne used to go to parking lots, give 40 car drivers 40 cassettes and "conduct." this isn't a pragmatic individual.

― da croupier, Friday, November 7, 2014 8:56 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, but that's a far more interesting idea.

that's like...your opinion man

Church OTM, too.

the point is that wayne chases beauty, and some people think wearing a billowy cape while singing beatle songs with miley cyrus is beautiful

besides the fucker already covered dark side of the moon and the stone roses' first album, everybody needs get their eyes out of the hatorade bottle and catch up

Yes, two more equally pointless exercises.

your mistake is assuming the emperor doesn't realize he's naked

he's like an alternate reality marc bolan where he lived and really got into styx

This sounds absolutely amazing btw

One thing that annoys me is that Embroyonic was such a great album that really got me excited about them again after Mystics was so underwhelming. I thought The Terror was almost as good but feel like it totally got lost amongst all these other pointless albums. If it had been the only release they put out after Embroyonic it might have got the attention it deserved. I'll never write them off but with these albums and Wayne's general attitude these days it's a crap time to be a Flaming Lips fan.

I loved Embryonic but never got around to the Terror. Now that I've heard all this inbetween I'm irritated enough by Coyne to not want to bother.

Clouds taste shite

Coyne looking increasingly like wizzard-era roy wood

If only they sounded anything like Wizzard. I'd be all over them.

lol

me too (xpost)

Appropo of nothing, the 5.1 surround mixes of Yoshimi and AWWTM are really good.

Also, listening to 7 Skies H3, the 50 minute edit of their 24 hour song. It's pretty good, mostly instrumental so far. Some great great kettle drum choir stuff banging away. It sounds a little like "The Gash" extended.

Loving the two new singles (especially "The Castle"). The Flaming Lips are classic n' Wayne is such a nice dude.

I thought it was well known around the net that the dude is a delusional, creepy pervert and not very nice.

^ There's those stories, yeah. I met Wayne around the time Yoshimi came out and he was one of the nicest musicians. Perhaps that's changed, don't know.

Haven't heard a good horrible Wayne Coyne story in a while, actually.

Just checked and the headress fiasco was two years ago.

Probably because they've been busy making a new record!

I heard one of the new songs. It doesn't have drums, and it isn't good.

After an initial listen through of the new record I am struck at just how bad it is. Aimless and middling. Keyboard based but without the eerie tension that makes The Terror so interesting. It's almost like they have been so enamored with re-making other bands music that they have forgotten how to craft their own songs. There is a real paucity of ideas here. Doesn't bode well for the upcoming tour.

Haven't heard the album yet but the two singles go absolutely nowhere. This is probably the least excited I've been about one of their albums (not counting the covers albums) since I got into them 18 years ago.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/01/dissected-every-flaming-lips-album-with-guest-commentary-from-wayne-coyne/

Interesting to read Wayne's thoughts here.

cool interview. too bad they didn't get Wayne's Words on "Hit to Death".

is "The Terror" album cover really that bad? it looks like a blown-up JPG full of artifacts. this was a big reason i didn't buy it, i think even the vinyl release looked like that. yuck.

imo the new album cover looks like something one of their interns whipped up one afternoon in Illustrator. not really excited about the new stuff.

fwiw, I think the cover art on "The Terror" suits the music perfectly.

I

Oops

** Is the "Terror" worth another re-listen? Heard it when it came out and liked it, but it seemed too bleak for my current mental state at that time.

i thought it was great when it came out, havent re-listened yet tho

I loved The Terror when it came out and played it a decent amount. I went back to it last year for the first time since around the time it came out, but I don't think I was quite in the mood for it. It's a tough listen if you're not in the right mood.

I just checked and I called The Terror a masterpiece on this thread when it came out. It is definitely not a masterpiece.

I think it's pretty successful at creating that sort of stark and hopeless feeling that the band, I think, was aiming for. And it manages to stay engaging for its entirety. While certainly not a masterpiece, I think it's a more than worthwhile listen. Although I can say that o don't think I've ever spun it in the daylight. It's best late at night.

I think The Terror is close to a masterpiece. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it - things weren't going very well for me at the time and it was definitely the perfect accompaniment.

Haven't heard the new album yet but of the first three tracks only "How?" really warrants additional listens. Not looking forward to the rest.

i hadn't cared about anything flaming lips-related since the soft bulletin and i loved the terror when it came out

i dug embryonic a lot but haven't revisited it since '09 or '10. terror sounded cool too but i found it hard to care

listened to this 2 times today. where are the fucking drums?

forgettable as hell. a bunch of keyboard songs that all sound the same and bleed into each other. the most psychedelic thing about this record is flipping on the echo whenever someone says the word "high"

The thing about The Terror is it so successfully conveys a mood or state of mind which it doesn't waver from, but it's not the sort of mood or state of mind that I wanna be in for an hour. That, and the LP is frontloaded.

yes and that mood is this cold desperate mechanical feeling of being In An Priest Driven Ambulance. this album is just, some bored stoned guys with keyboards and echo pedals.

I took a long break from paying much attention to the Flaming Lips after Yoshimi, and only recently went back to the later albums. Only listened once but Embryonic seemed surprisingly incredible.

Haven't listened to the new one in full. The two singles were okay.

You guys weren't kidding about how bad this is. Just listened to it twice and could barely get through it the second time. It's as thin and forgettable as those last three Mercury Rev albums. This could well be their worst album since the 80s. At War With Mystics was disappointing but at least it had songs like vein Of Stars, My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion and It Over Takes Me. The only bit I really enjoyed on this new one is Sunrise and that's just because it borrows from that Miley Cyrus album they worked on. Seems like they used up all their best songs on that album instead.

I finally got around to reading that Wayne Coyne album rundown. Interesting stuff and I was happy to finally hear someone talk about the Ronald Jones years. I happen to love both of those records (esp Metallic) and was sorry to see him go. Seems like being in the public eye didn't suit him, which is too bad. I think when he showed up it was the first time the band had a real proper guitarist. I still appreciate his snakey guitar work to this day. I wonder what he's doing now?

Wayne mentions trying to reach out to Ronald Jones in this interview http://www.popmatters.com/feature/ronald-jones-john-tesh-and-metallic-clouds-an-interview-with-wayne-coyne/

I kinda like the new one after one listen at least! Don't shoot me, but it at least sounds interesting. Certainly has this pop element throughout that harkens back to Yoshime/Mystics, but as a synth slut, the tones and textures really call to me. Play it on a nice set of headphones. It's wonderfully produced at least

FWIW Embryonic and 7 Skies H3 are the only two records I have listened to from these guys more than a couple times in the past ten years.

yeah i would be lying if i said the new one isn't growing on me each time i listen. this may be one of those albums i have to hear a dozen times before it clicks.