The Flaming Lips...

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.

You know, Half Japanese's first album doesn't predate Flaming Lips' first album by that much. New Half Jap is wonderful...

“To me, the great revelation about rap music is that rappers don’t look at it like: ‘We’re a band, and there’s a drummer and a bass part and a guitar part and somebody sings,’” he says. “Rappers are like: ‘There’s a track, I don’t give a fuck how it got there but I’m going to do something cool on top of it.’ We liked the idea that we’d be both sides of it. On this record, we’d go in as the Flaming Lips and make a track, then we’d hand it to the other part of the Flaming Lips to sing on top of it.”

It’s a method they’ll also apply to their next project, another Miley Cyrus album, which they’re planning to fit around her current day job. “She’s going to keep being a judge on The Voice, but I know she wants to make music at the same time,” says Coyne. “I’m thinking of a way we can make a record without her having to sit there for months and months. I think she likes it when it’s like: ‘You guys do some of the work, and then I get to come in and do something really cool.’”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/12/flaming-lips-wayne-coyne-on-miley-cyrus-acid-asap-rocky

started skipping "Sunrise" entirely, that must be the most boring Lips song ever. not surprised to hear it originates from their first Miley album. they are making another with her? they will be stuck in this boring dumbed down pop mode forever

there are some live drums in the last song but that's it. the sameness of everything really huts the record. "Almost Home" is a demo of a song that could be good with some live drums and some energy to it. here it sounds like the band is on auto-pilot. add in repeating themes from one song to the next and it's all a blur w the occasional extra farty synth.

fuck the drum machine on "Almost Home" doing those fake fills. i could be listening to Mega Man 2 and hear more far out shit than this.

How to deal with cops (1996): call up the insects you command and the waterbugs attack the policeman

How to deal with cops (2016): give them so much money that they can retire and live the greatest life they ever lived

I can't get beyond the first two tracks. Seems like Wayne is the weakest link - Is it worth it?

all those references to unicorns, wizards, and castles and shit are really paying off in these reviews. "These guys are crazy and psychedelic - they sing about unicorns!" but in almost all cases it's just that, there's no substance to any of it, it's just another thing in a list of Psychedelic Things. "Day Glo Strippers?" oh wow, crazy! what are they doing? anything? no? i suppose the phrase "There should be Day Glo Strippers" alone is supposed to blow my mind.

once upon a time they could make you cry while singing about fucking folding your laundry.

i know this is really old news for most people reading this thread, but i really, really like The Terror. i've been listening to it non-stop on repeat. like a lot of people, they completely lost me with At War with the Mystics. i loved everything they did up to that point, but the combo of the badness of the music + the increasingly saccharine antics drove me away. anyway, i heard The Terror was good when it came out but just didn't bother with it. big mistake. i suppose i should go back and revisit Embryonic as well at some point.

You Lust is a monster track

There's some great stuff on At War with the Mystics.

Embryonic and The Terror are of a piece, the Lips on a bad trip. They're both excellent.

I've been re-listening to the old stuff and it really holds up. Kind of surprised to find that i like "Transmissions" more than "Clouds" nowadays. One thing that really sticks out on those records is the high end: for instance in "Turn It On" even the kick drum has lots of high end to it. Couple that w Wayne's voice and the swirling, churning guitar noise and you have that classic sound. The new stuff is super muted in comparison, with very little high end and lots of bass.

oh yeah and i re-found this old documentary on the making of "Clouds". love the part with Ronald Jones finding "The Lindsey Buckingham sound"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPbMCUSCoM

Tune out the lyrics or consign them to background colour and the new one is a fun, proggy trip.

Man this new album is such a let down.

If you haven't gone back to truly appreciate 'The Terror', perhaps this will convince you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Stirk2PZfY

oh yeah that's great stuff. "You Lust" is really nice too.

the new one does have a lot of really nice moments. they seem to have gone back to a Soft Bulletin songwriting style, where there is a verse and a chorus and the two are pretty different so there is also an instrumental interlude, a nice little orchestrated bridge from one part to the next. some of these are my favorite parts on the new one, and yeah, very prog.

it's weird though, for all the places it goes, it still sounds too similar. maybe they are using the same sounds too many times? that chimey keyboard pops up on several tracks, sounding just a little bit different on each one, but not enough imo.

Wow, I hadn't seen that Turning Violent video before. Such a great song and I think The Terror is going to have a very long shelf life. I saw the band last week and after a very slow start they redeemed themselves with an entertaining (and very loud) second half of the show. Still too much reliance on bells and whistles though. At the very least, Wayne Coyne knows his audience.

i'm a very casual fan but in any case, the balloon thing is so very tedious

Christ, Oczy Mlody surely is the weakest, most pointless "proper" studio album they've released for decades...

Yeah.

Like, you'd have to go back quite far in their discography, probably before Hit to Death... to find a weaker LP...

as long as you're not including priest driven ambulance in that assessment ;-)

Hate that i've been sand-bagging on this one hoping for goodness - SB and 5.1 Yoshimi will have to do

Yeah it's pretty disappointing.

I fuckin' loved The Terror. Soundtracked my own life full of disaster at the time.

I'll not hear anyone say a bad word about At War With the Mystics knowing that Oczy Mlody exists.

I'll not hear anyone say a bad word about At War With the Mystics knowing that Oczy Mlody exists.

Both LPs represent the band reaching the end of a particular thread of creative inspiration (Zaireeka to Mystics and Embryonic to Oczy Mlody) so if my comparison holds up the Lips will soon be yanking the steering wheel towards somewhere else. :)

I'd be very happy if they started knuckling down and writing some songs again ... I like both Embryonic and The Terror , but I also think that At War With the Mystics was unfairly panned. I can't say I'm embarrassed by anything on it, really.

The weak songs on At War With Mystics are The Wizard Turns On which sounds like a rubbish Air song and Haven't Got A Clue which sounds like a mess. Free Radicals isn't that great either. It always reminded me of Suede Head Music era B-side. The rest of the album is really good and miles ahead of anything on the new album. Vein Of Stars has gone on to become my favourite song of theirs. My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion is immense too.

Interesting that you say it was unfairly panned Turrican, I do remember the Pitchfork review but it mainly got great reviews everywhere else. Uncut gave it 5/5 and said it was another masterpiece.

Have Got a Clue is pretty lame. also weird because it seems to have been written by a non-bandmember.

The Wand and Yeah Yeah Yeah = awful.

Wrong.

Interesting that you say it was unfairly panned Turrican, I do remember the Pitchfork review but it mainly got great reviews everywhere else. Uncut gave it 5/5 and said it was another masterpiece.

― kitchen person, Friday, July 14, 2017 2:03 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't mean "unfairly panned by music critics" ...

It's definitely a lousy record, but I agree Oczy Melody is a whole new level of bad.

oh god i forgot about YYY

Great song, a lot of fun - which I expect automatically makes it repellent to a certain kind of music fan.

I don't think it's great or fun, and I think I like great & fun songs, but whatever floats your boat. The whole package--I found it all really insipid. Album has great art, though.

'The Wizard Turns On' is great, btw.

yeah Wizard is an album highlight

they need to bring back real drums

YES! I completely agree - now that Kliph's no longer in the band, Drozd should scratch that drumming itch again.

"The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is pretty much the worst thing they've ever written. Agree that "The Wand", "Free Radicals", "Haven't Got a Clue" are very underwhelming too.

From the same sessions, "Mr. Ambulance Driver" is pretty underrated I think. I mean, it's an ode to EDDIE RABBIT.

It kind of feels like the real long lasting tune from the sessions has become "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung", at least measured by how much they play the track live.

None of those songs are bad, IMO. Certainly not as bad as anything on Oczy Mlody. I listened to both Mystics and The Soft Bulletin yesterday, and to be honest I preferred Mystics. The only thing I would change about it is the mastering, which is horrible in places.

Mystics mastering is terrible for sure. Compression kills that record

oczy is sounding good right now, maybe this record was a grower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9lnCTOcgTQ

great track

it's my favorite since yoshimi. the companion RSD live thing is pretty good too

https://thefutureheart.com/2017/03/17/record-store-day-live-album-oczy-mlody-onboard-international-space-station-concert-peace-flaming-lips/

Awesome Reggie, will check out

Like how they're going for an inverse of yoshimi or soft bulletin on this

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