Just something I need to get off my chest. The Flaming Lips have a new album, At War With the Mystics.
It is terrible. Just awful.
I mean, I like the Flaming Lips. A lot. The Soft Bulletin is one of the best albums of the last decade, in my opinion. But this one…
Annoying noise effects piled upon more annoying noise effects piled upon ridiculous pseudo-70s guitar jams that go nowhere. I know taste is a subjective thing and I shouldn’t get angry about people liking whatever it is they choose to enjoy, but anyone who thinks “Free Radicals” is a good song should have their head examined.
And the first single: “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.” Let’s start with the title. I mean, come on. But beyond that, this song would still be perfectly fine if not for the incessant interruptions for “yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.” But those interruptions grate on my nerves so much that I spend every second of the song worried that they’ll show up again.
I’ll be honest that I stopped paying close attention about halfway through. So it’s possible that there was something in the second half that deserves more attention. But I’ve tried to listen a couple times and each time have been so frustrated that I ignore the later songs.
But, in spite of this, I keep reading good reviews. This has created some serious dissonance in my mind. What in the world are they getting from this that I’m not? I mean, I can handle people loving Justin Timberlake. I have no desire to listen to him, but that’s because I have no interest in that type of music. Other people do, fine, whatever. But this is The Flaming Lips. I LOVE this band. I’ve often found myself defending their weirdness. But now this: I just can’t even fathom it.
Are people so caught up in the belief that the Lips are a Great Band so any piece of garbage they produce therefore must be Genius, and it’s up to us to figure it out?
One person told me that the only reason I didn’t like the album was because I’d only listened to it a few times. You have to give it a dozen listens, they insisted, because it’s so complex. I’m sorry, but I’d rather bash my hand with a hammer. There is no way I’m going to suffer through a 12 hours of misery in the hopes that I might finally “get” it.
And please don’t read this as a typical “their old stuff was awesome but I don’t really like the new album” rant. I’m more than willing to admit when a band improves (witness: The Flaming Lips circa 1999). And even if I do romanticize past albums, it’s a pretty minor effect. I wasn’t THRILLED about the new Decemberists last year, but I still ranked it in the top 10 albums of the year. That’s not what’s going on here. It’s not that I’m underwhelmed by this album, it’s that I can’t stand it. They have distilled everything that I even slightly disliked from their earlier works and tied it all up into one stinking package.
I don’t mind them being cute. In fact, I kind of enjoy it. I don’t mind them playing around with sound effects. In fact, I kind of enjoy it. I do mind them aping the worst of ELO, but I could deal with it in isolation. But all of these things together, combined with what appears to be an almost pathological desire to obliterate melodies create a very bad album.
The one song that I do quite enjoy is “Goin’ On.” It’s quiet, sparse, achingly beautiful, and melody driven. There are harmonies, and the effects are placed with care to emphasize the mood of the song, rather than the song being draped upon a series of effects. And some moments elsewhere on the album are perfectly fine as well (“Vein of Stars” isn’t bad, and “My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion” is okay, for example). All of which proves they haven’t gone completely nuts and are still quite capable of producing great music.
Why they chose to forego doing so for the rest of the disc, I have no idea.
Please, Flaming Lips. Revert to turning Cat Stevens songs into musical gems. And stop peeing on a mixing board and calling it music (metaphorically, of course. At least, I hope. After Mystics, I’m just not sure what to think).