The Flaming Lips...

i really like "Galaxy I Sink" too, maybe my favorite on the record.

i am way more into this album than when it came out (would rate it over Mystics) but still feel like it's undercooked. like it should be a sprawling double album but we only got half the tracks. the minimalism and noise elements tend to be boring here where they were more menacing and focused on "The Terror".

also i think they are reaching the limit of their production style, the bottom entirely falling out during the overloaded bass solo of "Nigdy Nie". it tries to be awesome and overwhelming solo but just ends up sounding like a bad recording.

I genuinely believe that it's their weakest album for a very long time and would certainly not rate it over Mystics.

why is it so weak? i don't hear it

love that the melody on the first track re-appears as a motif later on

great when artists do this, st. vincent pulled the same trick on her latest

turrican, how can you not love the strings on galaxy i sink, that's dope

Newest record is dope. Great sound design

Psychedelic like their earlier stuff but in a more sedate way. How is incredible

The release of the "early years" box set is a good reminder that this band sucked from the beginning. They were the Replacements (who also sucked) trying to be the Butthole Surfers.

right.

from priest onwards up until the last one they were pretty dope. their early early stuff does suck tho

nah, sure they were total amateurs but there is plenty of good stuff. "Everything's Exploding" rules. "Chrome Plated Suicide" rules. i love "Godzilla Flick" off that first record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUCzn_eMFF4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUCzn_eMFF4&

Oddly tempted to check out the new one, which is supposedly a Return to Form™.

They never put out an album that disappointed me. Apart from the Miley Cyrus collaboration. There has definitely been a lot of wheel spinning and a loosening up that is sometimes fun and sometimes frustrating, but there is definitely a sense of aimlessness. Wayne started smoking pot and I think he went through his college party phase late. Hoping that being a dad is going to bring some kind of focus back. Oczy Mlody wasn't bad but it was more like a mood piece. I liked King's Mouth a lot more than I expected, but it's such a concept thing that I never want to hear a particular song.

I take back what I said. At War With The Mysics was disappointing. A few good songs but gtfo with "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and all that shit. The Terror was the last one that I loved.

I like Wayne's personal stories so I'm hopeful for the new one. I would like songs about drugs and not another damn vague thing about The Sun or cosmic claptrap.

I'm hearing good things too, but please don't make me listen to this.

what form is it returning to though? the last Flaming Lips album I actually loved was Clouds Taste Metallic which is 25 years old now. tbh I haven't listened to anything since Embryonic, which was OK I guess, after disliking most of Yoshimi and Mystics and not really liking the Soft Bulletin much but I seem to be alone on that one

Embryonic has turned out to be one of my favorites of theirs.

what form is it returning to though? the last Flaming Lips album I actually loved was Clouds Taste Metallic which is 25 years old now. tbh I haven't listened to anything since Embryonic, which was OK I guess, after disliking most of Yoshimi and Mystics and not really liking the Soft Bulletin much but I seem to be alone on that one

You won't like the new one.

It has a song called 'Watching the Lightbugs Glow'. I think I'll give it a miss.

The Soft Bulletin is the last album of theirs I cared for. But i confess i dont make much effort any more. Still great live, but I'm out when it comes to recorded releases.

I saw someone rant on FB about how this is a mere SB rehash but that seems very unfair. Genuinely great album in its own right and the only similarity is that it's melodically strong all the way though

xpost That's funny, because it's their Muppet Rock live performances that mostly turned me off. I've skipped or ignored many of their last several releases, which have mostly seemed like stunts, and Wayne went from whimsical wizard to douchebag pretty quickly, but the last couple of albums I heard, like Embryonic and The Terror, were as I recall pretty cool.

I missed out on The Terror until last year for being put off by them for years due to the same reasons

The only real SB comparison I can really hear is that it appears to mine an ELO 'Time'/'Secret Messages' influence for the first time since

Lips bug songs >>> sun songs

I remember being super excited for At War with the Mystics because someone told me it was a return to their 90s guitar-based sound... I was like "YES! Finally, enough with this preschool shit!" Then I get it and hit play and the fucking "Yeah Yeah Yeah" song comes on... LOL

Mystics has some deep cuts I like a lot ("Cosmic Autumn Rebellion", "Pompeii", "Goin On") but some real dogs as well

Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung is my favorite off of Mystics. Meh record with like 3-4 killer songs.

For any people who disliked the Lips pop/whimsy trilogy of The Soft Bulletin/Yoshimi/Mystics give Embryonic and The Terror a try. Completely different atmosphere, sound and emotional palette, and my two favorite records by the band.

New one is quite good btw, and is a sonic turn from the last decade back into more of a bright instrumentation a la Yoshimi, but with much darker and introspective narrative to the lyrics. Definitely more autobiographical like their 90's records rather than the cosmic, fictional storytelling that came after.

Never liked the sound of their records from the 90's other than Clouds Taste Metallic. I don't get the nostalgia for that era. They weren't very good and felt like a middling indie band.

Yeah Embryonic was a big surprise to me at the time, I had p much written them off and then Embryonic felt like a bolt out of nowhere, the first time in forever that this band that constantly throws around words like "freak" & "weird" made a record that actually sounded weird and freaky. I've probably reached for that one more than any of their others over the last ten years.

I can't prove this, but I credit Kliph Scurlock for productively kicking their assess on that one.

and after he left (got sacked) they went on a long detour back to cutesy gimmickland for quite a while, so I suspect he really was a (the?) key ingredient there for a bit

With Wayne & Michael Ivins' extremely limited instrumental abilities, it seems like its always good for them to have someone else in the room who can actually play music along with Drozd (who otherwise afaict basically plays like 95% of whats on the records, right?)

Clouds Taste Metallic is wonderful but I'm well aware that it's at the top of my list because of nostalgic reasons. Embryonic and The Terror are excellent and likely my #2 and #3 favorites. This new one is right up there though. Still processing but so far its been exactly what I've wanted recently. A sad look at reality but also calming and melodic.

Never liked the sound of their records from the 90's other than Clouds Taste Metallic. I don't get the nostalgia for that era. They weren't very good and felt like a middling indie band.

― octobeard, Monday, September 14, 2020 11:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

offtm, a middling indie band couldn't produce "superhumans"

guitars big, hooks strong

I love the sound of those records. The Bonham drums rule.

Kliph has played drums on the last two or three Gruff Rhys albums if you want more of his drumming.

Always surprised Wayne hasn't gotten metoo'd yet

I actually like Steven's drumming best!

xpost - at the very least he should have gotten far more blowback for that Badu shit he pulled.

a friend of a friend was his assistant and it sounded like it was crazy

when they weren't busy he made her paint his house

Kliph made him out to be a real angry, volatile, even somewhat violent character, which is obviously impossible to verify, but that seems to line up with what I thought was hiding behind that Yoshimi-era goofiness.

Kliph only drummed on some of Embyonic, if I remember right. And he left afterwards. I know there was a lot going on, but he seemed really irritated with Wayne running around with Kesha and I assume the mid-life hedonism/crisis that Wayne was going through around that time. Wayne as a freaky workaholic was much better than Wayne the insufferable stoner.

He's also credited on The Terror but idk how credits/reality line up for them

there's interviews where he talks about the terror sessions, it seems pretty clear he played on it too.

It’s only been a week but I've already cooled considerably on this album.

All these TV specials on John Lennon in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday reminded me of the only time I saw the Flaming Lips, at Irving Plaza in NYC.
Wayne Coyne says, "this song is dedicated to everyone whose birthday it is today!!" and people in the audience get really excited, yelling that it's their birthday, or it's their friend Sarah's birthday, or their dog's birthday... And this one guy in the front row keeps shouting "it's John Lennon's birthday!! it's John Lennon's birthday" over and over. Wayne seems to be ignoring him at first, then finally he says (in a slightly annoyed tone)
"yeah yeah, i know, it's John Lennon's birthday. But he's dead, y'know?
Why should we celebrate his birthday when there are all these people whose birthday it is and they're here to enjoy it??"

idk about this guy, but thought that was cool.

Surprised by how much I like their new one. The only track I don’t really care for is “Brother Eye,” and even that’s listenable.

I like it with reservations. I enjoy the music, and Wayne's schtick doesn't bother me like it had been starting to. My main problem with the new one is that Wayne doesn't take a break often enough. As much as American Head gets compared to the Soft Bulletin, that album had a lot of long bad-ass instrumental sections.

I kept wanting Wayne to take a break with the new one. And sometimes he'll sing the same thing repeatedly, seemingly to fill up space, when singing it once would work much better. I need to listen to it more, maybe I'll get over these issues.