One of the best moments in award shows history has to be when Wayne Coyne surfed the crowd in a bubble. It was epic! It just had the world going ‘Oh my God, I want to be him!’. That moment there gives Coyne the right to smile like a smug bastard for the rest of his life. His ‘I am the King of the Freaks’ life. For all I care, The Flaming Lips could do another ‘At War With The Mystics’, which wasn’t a bad album at the end of the day. But no, The Lips aren’t that kind of band. They like to surprise people (why show up at the VMA’s and present an award with Tony Hawke if not to surprise you – no, not shock, they’re above that). Yet, there will be voices who will claim that one should not be surprised with the new album, ‘Embryonic’, because, hey, this is The Lips.
It also stops being a surprise that something great is happening on this new release when you hear the opening song, ‘Convinced of the Hex’, and hear its intensity. There are so many good things going on in this krautrock piece it’s hard to figure out which one to start with when you list the reasons why it’s so damn good and infectious: the sensual vibe or maybe the drum pattern or even the evil guitars. Once you can stop playing it on repeat and sink deeper into the album, it becomes clear this is in fact a statement. The rich sound, the lack of traditionally structured songs, the drums that assault your speakers are here as evidence.
Second track, ‘The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine’, sets off as a bundle of scraping guitars and evolves into a space-y dronish number(as a cheeky bonus you also get the static effect the speakers make when a phone is ringing right next to them). This rather schizoid approach is easy to notice all through out the album (in fact, it’s one of the things that bring the album together). For instance, the next three tracks. ‘Evil’ is a heartbreaking ballad (when the high-pitched end of the line ‘Those people are evil’, you feel a bit of yourself crumbling) that has elements of both jazz structures and ambient music. ‘Aquarius Sabotage’ is a half noisy rampage, half Yoshimi Pt.2 infused piece that almost leaves you wondering what the hell just happened. And ‘See the Leaves’ is as menacing as a song can get, but one can wonder if it’s the first two minutes of the song or the bleepy experimental electronica ending that give it this vibe.
Then there’s something else that keeps the album together: some songs are connected to those before them. Such is the case of ‘If’ that is a response (and an attempt to add some hope to the general vibe’) to ‘Evil’. ‘People are evil’ sings multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, only to continue ‘But on the other hand/They can be gentle’. In the same category, of connected songs, you have ‘Sagittarius Silver Announcement’, a space-rock piece that sometimes sends you back to the second song off the album.
And the album needs such things to bring it together. Otherwise, putting two songs like ‘If’ and ‘Gemini Syringes’ (which features a bleak bass and Karen O making clicking gunshot sounds) would be just strange. And then you jump to a whole new thing: ‘Your Bats’ is a two and a half minutes rock jam with immense drums and yet another menacing sound. ‘Powerless’ is the longest track on this record (almost seven minutes) and it only sets off after about two minutes of twinkles when it goes straight into what seems to be experimental jazz.
‘The Ego’s Last Stand’ can be summed up in one word: badass! The drums are badass, the bass line is badass, the crescendo is badass. Although, I have to admit, the way the song explodes in your face is heavenly. Further deep into Lips’ strange world you get the, well, most strange love song ever: ‘I Can Be A Frog’, reminiscent of Deus’ ‘Nothing Really Ends’, a duet with Karen O who does the interpretation of all the animals/things Coyne lists (no, she can’t do a helicopter sadly). Here’s another thought: the whole album features heavy bass lines. But not one is as heavy as the line on ‘Worm Mountain’, a bombastic piece featuring none other than MGMT and a riff that might be part of some stoner rock song.
And just when you thought stuff like Karen O making animal sounds was weird, you get a free improv in the shape of ‘Scorpio Sword’ and then you skip to the mellow ‘The Impulse’ which features a harp and a vocoder and is a good break from all the free jamming and heavy bass. And as it ends, you should prepare yourself as here we go again. ‘Silver Trembling Hands’ would probably have a place on ‘The Soft Bulletin’: it’s a vibrating song and it makes a great sing-along with all those twinkles in the back. By now you should know that the next song will makes you thing ‘What?’ and ‘Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast’ delivers: a ping, spoken words, floating harmonies, lots of empty spaces in the instrumental that probably work wonderfully when you hear this on headphones (and what might be Karen O who thinks this is still ‘I Can Be A Frog’ and is still doing animal sounds).
The album wraps up gloriously with ‘Watching The Planets’ (that has reminisces of ‘I Can Be A Frog’ – remember the connection I was talking about before?). It features Karen O again, a really groovy distorted bass (that is in fact the same as the one on ‘Convinced By The Hex’) and it’s the second great sing-along on the album (the no-no-nos and yeah-yeah-yeahs chants really help). ‘Embryonic’ is an epic album, maybe a reaction to the poppier ones released before, maybe a re-birth of The Lips, but definitely a highlight in their career and among this year’s releases. Wayne Coyne&co are currently busy grinning like the smug and really creative freaks they are.
*Photo courtesy of Flaming Lips
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