Album Of The Week - 12th October : The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

The Flaming Lips return with a surprisingly normal (for them) album title! 'Embryonic' is their twelfth studio album since forming in 1983 and their first double album. You get a sense with The Flaming Lips over their long career that they have always stuck to doing exactly what they feel like doing with no thought for how it might be received. They have had some success and some of their releases have been more accessible and radio friendly than others but there was never a sense that they were "selling out" or compromising to sell more records in any way. I wish there were more bands out there with this attitude. So many seem to give in to the influences of record labels and the media to make records that the masses are going to like instead of making a record that they themselves love.

Having achieved much commercial success with their previous three albums 'Embryonic' sees them returning to a more experimental and as a result slightly less accessible album. I believe this is definately a good thing though. The great thing about The Flaming Lips has always been their inventive, experimentation with sound and there was a danger that they were becoming too comfortable and too predictable with their sound in recent years. This change in direction is definately a welcome one and reminds us all what The Flaming Lips are all about.

This album demands your attention, there is so much going on and so many different elements to the sound that it envelops you and doesn't let you go until it's finished. The opening two tracks "Convinced of the Hex" and "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine" grab you right from the start with the melodies of the vocals set against the the jagged instrumentation. The album doesn't seem to have suffered from the self-produced nature of it. The sound is bright and the production is good.

There are a few guest appearances on the album including Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) who adds vocals to two tracks with her contribution recorded by lead singer Wayne Coyne over the phone. The most bizarre of these contributions has to be her animal noises on track "I Can Be A Frog"! There is also a guest appearance from MGMT on "Worm Mountain" and from a german mathmetician called Dr Thorsten Woermann on "Gemini Syringes".

To sum up this is an album that isn't going to appeal to everyone. Fans of the Flaming Lips more recent work might find it a little too weird for them! It is certainly not an album you can really just stick on in the background. It is jagged without ever being jarring and could definately not be accused of being boring. Give it a try and see what you think, I don't expect everyone to like it but you never know!
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic