It’s been a long, strange decade for The Flaming Lips. 2006 saw the release of At War With The Mystics, which consolidated their growing popularity following The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
Since then, they’ve made a film in front man Wayne Coyne’s back yard (Christmas On Mars), released an uneven, unfocused double album (Embryonic) and recorded two track-by-track cover albums (Dark side Of The Moon and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) In 2011, they released a monthly series of collaborations with other artists that included a song-filled USB stick in a gummy skull (the best of the tracks were later collated for the Heady Fwends album) and a 24 hour song (which was edited down to make the 7Skies H3 album)
Their last proper album, 2013’s The Terror, was a dark exploration of Coyne’s recent divorce. While artistically very good, it was a difficult listen, lacking the hope and wonder of earlier releases. Coyne and multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd also formed off-shoot band Electric Wurms and these two also co-wrote and played on the last Miley Cyrus album. Meanwhile The Flaming Lips has now swelled to a seven-piece and long-time Kliph Scurlock was kicked out after an argument with Coyne. This is where the band find themselves in 2017 with the release of new album Oczy Mlody (Polish for Eyes of the Young)
Oczy Mlody still has a similar synth-heavy sound to its predecessor but it is much less dark. While the music has gone back to a more classically psychedelic sound, some of the lyrics have followed suit – “Yeah there should be unicorns. The ones with the purple eyes not the green eyes” on There Should Be Unicorns or “I walked towards the wizard’s cave. To shoot out his wizard brains” on One Night While Hunting For Faeries And Witches And Wizards To Kill. Of course, this can also lead to some absolute dross such as “Glow glow glow glow. Glarey and glarey yeah” on the album’s weakest track Do Glowy.
The best songs here recall tracks from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, tales of darkness and death but with hope and acknowledgment of the good times and making the most of them. Track 10, The Castle contains the lyrics, “And the castle is brighter than a thousand Christmas trees. And the castle can never be rebuilt again” The message here is clear – make the most of the castle while you can.
Listening To Frogs With Demon Eyes even recalls Yoshimi’s It’s Summertime with the lines “Have you ever seen someone die in the summertime…?? Is that what your demon eyes see…??” but also tells us, “I can’t see your love but I know it is there”
Sunrise (Eyes Of The Young) returns to a similar Flaming Lips’ trope, the magic inherent in the idea that love is a human invention, “Tell me love is neither living or dying. It’s a poer in your mind” The best is saved for last – We A Famly, a duet between Coyne and Miley Cyrus. A classic Lips track, two people kept apart but who “just can’t imagine life without you could ever happen now”
There are no really obvious hits here as there were on The Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots but this is the best thing the band has done in a decade. Working with Cyrus has re-energised the band and there are even some hints of R&B throughout the album. At its heart it’s a psychedelic record though, the Lips returning to their best just as the bands that they influenced such as Tame Impala have brought that genre back to the musical forefront. There are some beautifully melancholic songs here and it points to a brighter future for The Flaming Lips.
Words by Gav Squires
@GavSquires
