The Flaming Lips, Embryonic

By Adam McIntyre

Nothing makes me sicker than hype, and people hyping things up unnecessarily, so I’m going to make this review as short as possible because there is about to be a tsunami of nauseating hype surrounding the new Flaming Lips album, Embryonic.

The first time I tried to listen to it, I had to stop after the dark, bombastic rock of “See The Leaves” and walk outside and just look around and think about things for a while. The Flaming Lips aren’t on the peace and love trip anymore, not exactly. Frontman Wayne Coyne has acknowledged evil and its presence in all of us, and his new trip is that we need to confront evil by making good choices.

The record sounds massive and riffy, even by Lips standards. The weighty flowers adorning their sound before are still there, albeit dashed by blood and spit. There are dashes of garagey, vintage psychedelia coagulating with modern production. They approach Embryonic more like film composers than one of the biggest rock bands in the world, probably because their film Christmas on Mars has finally been completed and released; film score credits are now big, official notches on their belts and part of their repertoire.

Soundscapes dance innocently over menacing bottom-heavy drum grooves, and Wayne Coyne’s vocals get a particularly artistic treatment this time around (and no more auto-tune, folks). After two warm-n-fuzzy albums and a massive following which includes more fratboys than usual, Oklahoma City’s Flaming Lips took a good look in the mirror and handed us a piece of art which begs us to forget bunny suits and balloons and instead remember the imagery of their early days—bloody eyeballs, worm mountains, Lovecraft-meets-Jabberwocky. . .

There are no hit singles, no pop hooks, and with precious little of the album dipped in a candy coating, why would you want to listen to it? It is the best-produced and most cohesive album the Lips have yet created, quite a feat considering its 18-song, 70-minute runtime. It is massively heavy and yet dreamy and gentle in a genuine, almost Air- (the French duo) like way, and it has some pretty amazing surprises. At the end of Embryonic, you won’t be sure whether you should listen to it again to soak in the next layer or just go sit and think.

Instead of seeking to create another Soft Bulletin, they’ve outdone themselves. It is an album which challenges their musical peers and comrades to follow up with a step forward of their own.

Embryonic was released on October 13. To hear selections, visit The Flaming Lips’ Official Site or MySpace page.