-
Artist:
-
Album:
Embryonic doesn't change what The Flaming Lips have ever meant, but Tom Whyman really does like it. I think if you like The Flaming Lips then you will too!
More >
The Flaming Lips
Embryonic
-
AMG Review of Embryonic
Heather Phares
All Music GuideChristmas on Mars might be the Flaming Lips' bona fide sci-fi epic, but Embryonic is the musical equivalent of the final scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey: transformative chaos that results in a new start. From The Soft Bulletin onward, the Lips seemed focused on tidying the loose ends of their earlier work, almost to the point of constraining themselves. Their wilder side is unleashed on Embryonic's 18 tracks, and the band sound, more off-the-cuff than it has in years -- some tracks are barely longer than snippets, others are rangy epics, and it all holds together so organically that listeners might wonder just how much these songs were edited. Musically, Embryonic is the least polite the Flaming Lips have been in nearly two decades, mixing in-the-red drums, blobby, dubby bass, squelchy wah-wah guitars, and sparkling keyboards into a swirl of sounds that are strangely liquid and abrasive at the same time. Occasionally, the band uses noise in an almost ugly way, as on "Convinced of the Hex," which scrapes eardrums with static and distortion before falling into a loose but driving Krautrock groove that adds to the song's tribal pull (complete with growling and wailing in the background). The Miles Davis-inspired "Aquarius Sabotage" opens fuzz bass and keyboards so chaotic, it isn't just free jazz, it's free-for-all jazz, while "Your Bats" is as soulful as it is noisy, piling roomy drums atop more delicate hand percussion, strings, and brass. The Lips balance these confrontational tracks with calmer moments like the vocodered loveliness of "The Impulse " and "Gemini Syringes," an expansive respite that features "additional spoken announcements" by mathematician Thorsten Wormann. Embryonic might not be a literal concept album, but it often plays like one. An astrology motif runs through the ultra-spacy "Virgo Self Esteem Broadcast" and the tumbling instrumental "Scorpio Sword," another track that suggests that the album's ultimate concept may be that chaos is a profound agent of change. It's also the Flaming Lips' most emotionally raw album, despite -- or perhaps because of -- its free-flowing nature. Wayne Coyne often sounds like he's singing from another dimension, musing on humankind's frailty with the wonder of an alien or a newborn on "If" and "The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine." This is also some of the band's most bittersweet work; on the beautiful "Powerless," Coyne sings "no one is ever really powerless," but the music dwells on the weighty implications of that thought rather than its potential freedom. Even the playful "I Can Be a Frog," which features Karen O as a one-woman noisemaker, is minor-key. Then again, little about Embryonic is clear-cut or straightforward -- these noisy, pensive, sometimes meandering songs take awhile to decipher and often feel like they're still in the process of becoming. These very qualities, however, make these songs some of the Flaming Lips most haunting and intriguing music in some time.
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
Flaming Lips: Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Embryonicis a frustrating listen. It benefits from an abundance of ideas, soundsand talent, but it sorely lacks in taste. Not just from the aestheticangle either, it literally lacks flavour. Correct that: it doesn’t lackflavour, it’s just that there’s only one flavour.
More >
This Week @ In Review Online: Flaming Lips, The Mountain Goats and more
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Maybe this should read last week at In Review Online, but these review just got posted recently and I think we've got a good haul for you. My Monsters of Folk review I've already posted, but here's the full list:Flaming Lips - Embryonic ( by Yorgo Douramacos)3.5 Stars (of 4)"If all you think of in connection with Wayne Coyne and the boys is sugary, glacial bliss and secular humanist hymns set a...
More >
The Flaming Lips: Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
ALBUM REVIEW: The Flaming Lips – Embryonicwords: Jamie MiltonWhen you approach ‘Embryonic’, it’s not totally unfair to approach it with haste. This is after all a band who, 26 years into their career, pride themselves on gutsy flings with previously unapproachable genres and combinations of sound. Rightfully, they have no fear, no limits.Holding that thought, [...]
More >
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Three years since their last album proper, At War With The Mystics, The Flaming Lips have seemingly decided to forego the soaring synth-inflected tunesmithery that saw them elevated to pioneers of modern American rock and reverted to the kind of proggy, trippy jams that characterised much of their early work.Clocking in at over 70…
More >
REVIEW: The Flaming Lips – Embryonic (2009)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
by Mike MineoThe author for the impending Flaming Lips biography must have it rough. There are few bands as consistently groundbreaking as Wayne Coyne and company, who would often devote concepts or stylistic trends into their work that defy the conventional norm. There was never a concise way to describe this band, whether referring to [...]
More >
The Flaming Lips: "Embryonic" (album review)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
I guess I'm just going to have to face it, gone are the days when you could rely on the Flaming Lips to provide you with quirky, humorous pop songs. The forthcoming double album, Embryonic, may be the final nail in that coffin.This latest expansion of the Oklahoma group's use of electronics and programming has sucked the life out of a band whose music had once been simultaneously catchy and
More >
First Look: The Flaming Lips – “Embryonic”
-
Artist:
-
Album:
After a pair of good-to-embarrassing albums and one extremely embarrassing home movie, the Flaming Lips are probably feeling some pressure to make a statement. Embryonic, a weird, wonderful two-disc epic, is certainly that. While not exactly a return to form for the band — it shares little with the widescreen pop of The Soft Bulletin [...]
More >
Cosmic Autumn Rebellion : The Flaming Lips Freak Marymoor Park (8.21.09)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
The full-effect of The Flaming Lips' live experience is not designed to thrive in small club presentations. If the group ever actually did manage to cram themselves onto a small stage, along with with all of the various contraptions and structures involved in their overblown stage show, the local fire marshals would probably lose their [...]
More >
The Flaming Lips Digital EPs reviewed / Embryonic cover art, track list, & KLIPH gives inside scoop
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Although they had formed 10 years earlier, most people, who were musically aware in the 1990s, wouldn't site their first encounter with the The Flaming Lips' music until the release of "She Don't Use Jelly", from the 1993 album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Over the next decade or so, The Lips explored some of [...]
More >
MGMT & Karen O Guest On New Flaming Lips Album
-
Artist:
-
Album:
When scouting for guests on the Flaming Lips' follow-up to 2006's At War with the Mystics frontman Wayne Coyne just picked up the phone. "For the Karen O tracks," he told Swiss website Die Klangschau, "I just called her up in her hotel room and we just did it right over the telephone. It's pretty absurd." The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman is expected to appear on more than one track on the album...
More >
33
MOG it up!
The Flaming Lips Announce Album Number Twelve
-
Artist:
-
Album:
The Flaming Lips have done pretty darn well for themselves and their continuously growing discography is there to prove it. Album number twelve from the collective comes in the form of Embryonic and is due for shop shelves on October 13th via Warner Bros.
More >
21
MOG it up!
Full Album Stream: The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
In case you missed it, The Flaming Lips just played on The Colbert Report. The album is streaming for a limited time on Colbert Nation; only until Monday the 21st. This is the first time The Flaming Lips have pre-released an album digitally in its entirety.Stream: The Flaming Lips – EmbryonicEmbyonic is due out October [...]
More >
The Flaming Lips: "Embryonic" (album review)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
I guess I'm just going to have to face it, gone are the days when you could rely on the Flaming Lips to provide you with quirky, humorous pop songs. The forthcoming double album, Embryonic, may be the final nail in that coffin.This latest expansion of the Oklahoma group's use of electronics and programming has sucked the life out of a band whose music had once been simultaneously catchy and
More >
Cosmic Autumn Rebellion : The Flaming Lips Freak Marymoor Park (8.21.09)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
The full-effect of The Flaming Lips' live experience is not designed to thrive in small club presentations. If the group ever actually did manage to cram themselves onto a small stage, along with with all of the various contraptions and structures involved in their overblown stage show, the local fire marshals would probably lose their [...]
More >
Flaming Lips: MP3s from the upcoming album
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
You may very well have seen this by now, but the blog Covert Curiosity has posted downloads posted two tracks for download from Embryonic, the forthcoming double album from the Flaming Lips (out September 29th).You can grab the tracks here:"Silver Trembling Hands"- MP3"Convinced of the Hex"- MP3Enjoy!Flaming Lips' websiteFlaming Lips' Myspace
More >
NSFW: Flaming Lips Naked Bike Video
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
A couple of weeks ago in Portland, OR, The Flaming Lips sent out a call to the wild people of the Northwest. That call was to get naked and bring your bike for a video shoot. The people came, stripped down, felt free and made their video up around Mt. Tabor. This link right here, is the result of their hard work. It’s for the song, “Watching The Planets” and since it contains nudity, its NSF
More >
37
MOG it up!
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Embryonic doesn't change what The Flaming Lips have ever meant, but Tom Whyman really does like it. I think if you like The Flaming Lips then you will too!
More >
The Flaming Lips Digital EPs reviewed / Embryonic cover art, track list, & KLIPH gives inside scoop
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Although they had formed 10 years earlier, most people, who were musically aware in the 1990s, wouldn't site their first encounter with the The Flaming Lips' music until the release of "She Don't Use Jelly", from the 1993 album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Over the next decade or so, The Lips explored some of [...]
More >
The Flaming Lips: "Embryonic" cover art, track list revealed
-
Artist:
-
Album:
It's getting closer and closer...the release of The Flaming Lips' new double album Embryonic that is (Oct. 13th). Previously we gave you a taste of some tracks from the album (get them here), now we can give you the album art work (above) and the complete track listing (below):Convinced of the HexThe Sparrow Looks Up at the MachineEvilAquarius SabotageSee the LeavesIfGemini Syringes1Your
More >
The Flaming Lips Interview & “Convinced of the Hex” on Colbert Report, new album Embryonic streaming
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
The Flaming Lips performed "Convinced of the Hex" on The Colbert Report on 9/16. Frontman Wayne Coyne also sat down to talk to Stephen Colbert. Check out both videos below and go to colbertnation.com to stream the new album Embryonic. Buy The Flaming Lips on iTunes, Amazon MP3, or on ...
More >
18
MOG it up!
The Flaming Lips - Watching The Planets (Video)
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
THE FLAMING LIPS - WATCHING THE PLANETS (VIDEO)And I thought the video for 'I Can Be A Frog' was weird. Furry egg-like objects, bubble boys, nudity, lots and lots of nudity. This video is fucked. Fucked to high heaven. Nothing beyond my expectations of The Lips but there really isn't much more to say. It's a psychedalic-drug inspired creative short turned music video. And I'm diggin' it. Here's...
More >
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
-
Artist:
-
Album:
The Flaming Lips’ strange and compelling journey has entered a new stage with the unveiling of their anticipated new double album Embryonic. The album is the latest in a selection of classic collections from the Grammy winning and Brit nominated Oklahoma band.The album features eighteen new songs, the sound is immediately recognisable as the Flaming [...]
More >
10
MOG it up!
[video] The Flaming Lips (w/ Karen O) - "I Can Be A Frog"
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
The Flaming Lips "I Can Be A Frog"One evening, two semi-risqué music videos for you. The first was about Girls, this one’s really about just 1 girl. The one pretending to be a whole zoo full of animals for about 2 ½ weird/wonderful minutes in the video for “I Can Be A Frog” from The Flaming Lips’ forthcoming double disc set, Embryonic, due October 13. Btw, that’s Karen O on assorted b
More >
16
MOG it up!
 "Embryonic")
