Flaming Lips
(Warner Bros.)
"I wish I could go back-go back in time," sings Wayne Coyne, in that trademark upper-register, vulnerable warble of his, in "Evil," the third track on the Flaming Lips' 13th (counting last year's Christmas On Mars soundtrack) studio album. Cocooned by a gentle, synchronized pulse of keyboards (piano, synth and mellotron) and eventually joined by an angelic vocal chorus, that voice seems wistful, nostalgic - as befits a record titled Embryonic. But is this true nostalgia, or is the preternaturally playful Coyne laying one of his lyrical red herrings?
"No one ever really can go back in time," he subsequently advises, and indeed, though 2009 may be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the world's turned tie-dye all over again, there's nothing on the Lips' CV to date that suggests Coyne & Co. (Michael Ivins, Steven Drozd and Kliph Scurlock) long to get back to any garden - ‘60s, ‘70s, or the pre-alternative ‘80s milieu that spawned them. Even their most "sentimental" songs have always betrayed a certain toughness; official Oklahoma State Rock Song "Do You Realize," though musically tender and lush on the surface, isn't about how life is beautiful, but how life and all its beauty can slip away before you know it.
The 70-minute Embryonic, then, is probably the most forward-feeling album the group's done since their space-age symphony from 1999, The Soft Bulletin. Jettisoning much of the sonic and lyrical aggression of 2006's uneven At War With the Mystics, it's a product of what Coyne has broadly described in interviews as "jamming," but despite the inclusion of several songs clocking in excess of five minutes, this is not traditional jamband territory, thanks in no small part to producer Dave Fridmann's watchful eye over undue excess and a Teo Macero-like sensibility informing the editing and mixing of the music. The record kicks off with the throbbing art-funk of "Convinced of the Hex," a Coyneian study in paranoia and cynicism (sings the narrator, "She says, ‘You think there's a system/ That controls and affects/ You see, I believe in nothing...'"), then quickly jets off for a 70+ minute journey through inner space.
Highlights? Almost too numerous to single out. There's the rumbling, trippy "The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine," with its shards of wah-wah guitar and electric piano; "See the Leaves," initially squonky, until it segues into a shimmery, almost orchestral denouement; the seven-minute "Powerless," a hypnotic, effects-splattered slice of Can-like psychedelia; the heavy, almost metallic wall of sound that is "Worm Mountain," featuring guests MGMT; the giddily zooming pop-Prog of "Silver Trembling Hands"; and closing number "Watching the Planets," a kind of massed tribal chant/singalong (that's Karen O yipping and yelping alongside Coyne and Drozd").
Thematically, Embryonic may be a tough study even abetted by a lyric sheet, with Coyne describing much but revealing little, although there's a recurring notion about submitting to and honoring the dictates of nature rather than society's, and with a definite distaff component surfacing throughout (several of the songs invoke a "she"), one imagines that Mother Nature in all her benevolence and judgment, was on Coyne's mind when he wrote the album. Or perhaps he'd just run across one of those old Parkay spread ads on YouTube, the ones with the tag line, don't mess with mother nature. Stranger things have informed record albums over the years, after all.
At any rate, if you think about all this, it just might paint the Okie band deeply sentimental after all. The Lips have frequently dwelled upon futurism, technology, dystopia-versus-utopia, etc. Maybe a desire to return to a state of natural purity is the ultimate form of nostalgia. But this time around, kids, don't head back to the garden - get back to the womb.
Consumer Note: For fans who can't get enough Lips, the album also comes as a 2-CD limited/deluxe edition (the 18 tracks are spread across two discs instead of just one) that includes a bonus audio DVD featuring far greater sonic quality. According to Warner Bros., "The 96k 24 bit audio has 256 times more resolution than a standard CD which provides greater detail reproducing the music in it's full dynamic range. You can now experience exactly what the artist and producer hear in the studio. Also with the limited edition comes a 24-page hardcover book containing art, lyrics and band photos, all housed in a "custom fur box." Well, that will fit just dandy on the old CD shelf. And on November 24 a 2-LP vinyl version will be released - it's called the "Mega Deluxe Edition" - featuring platters pressed on, respectively, transparent yellow and transparent blue wax; a CD containing the audio material is included with the package so you don't have to get the LPs all scratched up on that battered USB turntable of yours...
Standout Tracks: "Powerless" "Silver Trembling Hands," "Watching the Planets" FRED MILLS
[Blurt exclusive: Wayne Coyne talks about Embryonic and much more. Go here.]
