DECONstructed BY ANALOG
Starting with an almost krautrock groove which pushes and pulls between staccato guitar blasts, Embryonic, the new album from The Flaming Lips, is unlike anything most have heard before from the band. Those accustomed to the Lip's quirky yet undeniably catchy pop numbers such as "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and mega-hit "Do You Realize" will find little to relate to. Embryonic is the most difficult and rewarding album that The Flaming Lips have released in a decade. Not since before The Soft Bulletin (1999) has the band sounded so willing to break their own routines and stretch out into unknown territory.
Paranoid, damaged and relentlessly experimental, Embryonic is a mammoth 18 tracks and thankfully, in true Lips form, the moments where the experimentation becomes a barrier are in short supply. The band has always treaded a fine line between pop and chaos and through all the dissonance and noise there are still moments of perfect beauty. The album is a sprawling acid-rock epic which seems to have more in common with the early days of Pink Floyd than anything in the Lips own catalogue and the music seems tailor-made to be performed live, with the deadly grooves timed perfectly to some psychedelic laser light-show.
There will be many who find this record hard to handle but fear not. Sure there are 18 noise filled tracks with Wayne Coyne's trademark croon pushed off of the center. Sure there is loads of atonal (re: slightly aggravating) guitar work and squelchy synthesizers. But it's a new Flaming Lips record and for anyone who has heard their previous work, you know that's a great thing.
