in Review

Seriously OK

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

The Flaming Lips are back and they are as loud, weird, and experimental as ever.  But is that necessarily a good thing?

Sure, why not.  These guys have been doing it for long enough now that they can do whatever they want.  But the constant reinvention that has been their career does mean that they can’t possibly keep all their fans satisfied, and while most people seem to be in favor of what they’re doing here, I have a hard time getting excited about it.

There are some songs that rock.  There are a few that sound pretty good.  But I generally found this album… noisy.  The Flaming Lips and the guest artists on display here are obviously having a lot of fun, but that doesn’t really translate to good music.  A general lack of focus is confounded by being a double album, resulting in over an hour of tunes that segue between catchy to weird to, well, sort of boring.  If they had tightened into a regular album, this could have been something really great.

But, having read other reviews, I’m definitely in the minority here.  Maybe it’s because I really only love three Flaming Lips albums; Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi and At War with the Mystics.  If you’re a bigger Flaming Lips fan than I, I’m positive you’ll enjoy this.  But if you’re not, maybe you’re better off saving your $11.

Favorite Tracks: “Convinced of the Hex,” “Worm Mountain,” “Watching the Planets”