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The Flaming Lips, "Embryonic"

post #1 of 12
10/10/09 at 12:03am
Thread Starter 
Streaming now at npr.com.

The Quietus has an interesting track-by-track review here, and Alexis Petridis is always worth reading.

Quote:
Embryonic is a double album, a format whose worth has been debated ever since the first fan listened to side four of Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde amid the mounting fear that, in several weeks' time, when the police finally kicked down the front door and discovered his emaciated corpse, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands would still be playing.


It may be another couple of listens before I know how I feel about it. I agree that it could have been trimmed of a few songs, but there's an overall coldness to it that I really admire; I love all the ominous bass and stray electronic noises.
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post #2 of 12
10/10/09 at 2:00am
The new songs that I've heard are excellent and sound much stronger (and stranger) then anything they've done in years. At War With the Mystics bored me to tears. It seemed like a parody album rather than a Flaming Lips album. The double LP format worries me a tad, but sometimes excess sides with this band, so I'm for it.

I saw them live for the first time in August (wow) and the new songs sounded fantastic live. I'm really looking forward to it.
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post #3 of 12
10/10/09 at 8:35am
I'm listening to it now and as a fan of Krautrock and hypnotic psychedelic groove music it's sounding great to me so far. The last album was a pretty mixed bag and kind of felt like they didn't really have a strong idea of what they were trying to do. They clearly needed to change things up a bit, but they've almost totally reinvented their sound here (again). It's nice to be excited by this band again.
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post #4 of 12
10/19/09 at 6:29pm
Awesome fucking album. Love the new direction.

Also, they've announced (quite casually too) that they already recorded a full-length cover album of Dark Side of the Moon that will be released online soon. Fuck. Yes.

More details in this story:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/musi...hollywood.html



After finishing, listening multiple times, digesting... this is way, way up there in the running for best Flaming Lips album (as a whole) in my opinion. Basically, time will only tell if it gets knocked down.

I know that's hasty, and normally I wouldn't make such proclamations. But in all my time listening to bands, I don't think I've ever had such a moment of spending years dreaming up this imaginary album/direction in my head saying, "if they'd only do 'this,' I'd lose my shit." And with Embryonic, they've done it. They finally went with that style that I've been praying they'd nail all this time.

Ditto that the Dark Side of the Moon cover album. I've always thought they'd be a perfect band to tackle such a thing.
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post #5 of 12
10/19/09 at 7:38pm
I've heard the whole thing several times now and I love it. It doesn't really sound much like any other Flaming Lips record, but at the same time it could *only* be a Flaming Lips record. One of the best surprise left-turns I've seen a band take in ages.

Sadly it pretty much bombed here in the UK, not even making the top 40 (I don't know how much charts really tell us about popularity these days, but I do know Mystics made the top 10). I hope the 'difficult' nature of this one doesn't stall their career, cos I really think they've turned themselves back into a vital band worth paying close attention to.
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post #6 of 12
10/19/09 at 10:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fritz Chrome View Post
I hope the 'difficult' nature of this one doesn't stall their career, cos I really think they've turned themselves back into a vital band worth paying close attention to.
Just from my anecdotal evidence, word of their incredible live performances has got around enough that I don't think their career is every going to stall, unless it's by their will.

They have a consistent, built in fanbase at this point that probably isn't going anywhere. And as long as their creating good music, however challenging it might be, they're going to continue to scoop up new fans.


Part of what I freaked out about with this record and it's wonderful "left turn" is that it further cements the fact that this is a band that, to put it simply, knows what the fuck they're doing.
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post #7 of 12
10/20/09 at 5:39am
I've listened to it a couple times through, and I'm liking it more every time I listen to it. I've been aware of the Flaming Lips for years, but never really listened heavily to them, and I basically bought this on a whim. Definitely one of the best on-a-whim music purchases I've ever made. Now I just need to go back and pick up stuff from their back catalog.

That Dark Side of the Moon cover album sounds really interesting. I'll be interested to see if this becomes a trend in music, where bodies of work are given new interpretations by other artists, much as classical music and jazz are given new hearings with different performers/conducters. I don't know if that would be as viable with rock music, as it is more specifically tied to the musicians that originally played the compositions than other kinds of music, but it would be interesting if it happened (so long as it didn't stifle creativity and the production of new music).

Well that's a big block of run-ons. Oh well, too late to edit well.
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post #8 of 12
10/20/09 at 7:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeypants View Post
Part of what I freaked out about with this record and it's wonderful "left turn" is that it further cements the fact that this is a band that, to put it simply, knows what the fuck they're doing.
I think that's what threw me about Mystics. In terms of songwriting I think that record is ok, but it's probably the only time ever when it didn't feel like they had a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve - about half of it played it safe, and the other half branched out in a bunch of random different directions. It's like they started out making a sequel to Yoshimi and realised they'd pushed that style as far as it could go, but then weren't sure what their new direction should be. I don't think it's a coincidence that probably the most fresh and exciting song on that album (Pompaii) is the one that feels closest in spirit to Embryonic, where they suddenly sound sure of themselves again.
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post #9 of 12
10/20/09 at 12:38pm
Oh yeah. It was "Pompeii" on Mystics that really piqued my interest and led me to say "I wish they'd do more like this, and maybe even do something bold like cover Dark Side of the Moon."
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post #10 of 12
10/20/09 at 4:43pm
Love this record. Love it.

Here are the boys doing "Eclipse" from Dark Side of the Moon on KCRW: http://www.kcrw.com/music/in_studio


(check the playlist, I don't think I can link directly to their performance)
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post #11 of 12
12/5/09 at 2:55am
Having spent a few weeks with it now, I can say that this is my favorite album they've done yet. I feel like this is the sound they've been pushing toward for the last decade. The first time I listened to it, I thought it was neat that there were no guitars, just synthesizers. Then I listened again, and realized those ARE guitars. They're heavily treated with effects and stuff, so they have all sorts of otherworldly sounds, but you can hear that physical pick-and-string contact that nothing else gives you. I reckon The Soft Bulletin has more solid songwriting, and Yoshimi has more rock dynamic and humor, but this is the album that just doesn't sound like anything else I've ever heard in my life.
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post #12 of 12
12/8/09 at 1:38am
In a perfect Universe this version would had ended at the final montage of The Fountain.
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