Over their three-decade career, The Flaming Lips have reinvented themselves several times, but for the last decade they have been making more or less the same kind of melodic, catchy power-pop they perfected on their landmark 1999 album “The Soft Bulletin.”
After 2006’s ho-hum “At War with the Mystics,” it seemed as if the band was threatening to reach that plateau in their career where they churn out the same handful of formulaic songs on every album. That’s not to say “Mystics” was bad, it just felt as if after over 20 years of making music the band had finally found a comfortable rut to get stuck in.
Essentially, they had become a live band known more for their ridiculously over-the-top shows than their albums.
While that’s not necessarily a bad thing — especially considering their live shows are giant parties with group sing-a-longs, balloons, confetti and elaborate lighting rigs — it just felt as if the band’s creativity was starting to stagnate.
“At War with the Mystics” felt like an attempt to release a few more singles to pad their shows, while the album as a whole just felt almost unnecessary.
But The Flaming Lips have never been predictable. From their humble beginning as punk-inspired alternative rockers the band transitioned into fun and goofy pop during the 1990s and eventually became the psychedelic power-pop group of recent years.
And while most groups that have been playing together since 1983 would be content to just coast after finally finding their niche, The Flaming Lips are not most groups.
The band’s 12th studio album, the two-disc “Embryonic,” is by far the best thing they’ve done since “The Soft Bulletin.”
Gone are the group sing-a-longs and ballads about love and spaceships that dominated “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and “At War with the Mystics.” They have been replaced with moodier, distorted songs that sound more like psychedelic jam sessions than anything the band has released before, which is saying something.
The first disc opens with “Convinced of the Hex,” and it’s immediately apparent this isn’t the same Flaming Lips that made “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” or “Do You Realize??”
“Hex” begins with bursts of distorted guitar, which slowly unveils a funky, freak-out jam. What’s even more interesting is that lead singer Wayne Coyne’s normally bubbly vocals remain submerged in a monotone drone that sounds almost like a chant.
The happy, euphoric nature of The Lips’ previous work isn’t entirely missing; it’s just hidden beneath the surface for the vast majority of the album. This is probably the best thing the band could have done, as listening to The Flaming Lips’ sugary, feel-good songs can sometimes result in the psychological equivalent of a cavity.
Wayne Coyne embraces the inner cynic that even he must have been surprised to discover on songs like “Evil” and “See the Leaves,” where his lyrics are far more somber and philosophical than usual.
The album’s first disc is the gentler of the two, and while there are a handful of songs here that are undeniably from the Okalahoma City legends, they still represent an incredibly dramatic departure for the band.
And then the second disc starts, and the aggressive songs get louder and more intense and the quiet songs get more psychedelic and bizarre. To call “Embryonic” experimental would be an understatement; it’s pretty clear the band entered the studio with a loose idea of where they wanted to take the album, but for the most part it all just came together naturally through jam sessions.
“The Ego’s Last Stand” starts in familiar territory — even the title is reminiscent of past Lips’ songs — but instead of leading into a euphoric celebration, the slow burning song erupts into a joyously noisy climax that basically defines “Embyronic” as a whole. Even “I Can be a Frog,” which is probably the most traditional Lips song on the album, has a subdued and thoughtful tone that comes off as surprisingly refreshing.
And that’s what makes “Embryonic” so fascinating: It is defined by paradoxes. It is simultaneously more experimental yet more restrained; more serious yet, somehow, more ridiculous; and more aggressive while constantly pushing the band further into the psychedelic, hypnotic territory of Pink Floyd.
“The Dark Side of the Moon” is a pretty good comparison for “Embryonic.” Though it’s rather unlikely that this album will be as influential and celebrated as Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece, “Embryonic” definitely works within the same context. And, considering The Flaming Lips recently announced their next project will be a track-for-track remake of “Dark Side,” it’s pretty clear that any connections to that album were deliberate.
Ultimately, “Embryonic” is the kind of album no one expected The Flaming Lips to ever make again: It’s bold, aggressive and though it takes cues from classic rock albums, it somehow still feels quite original. But the strangest thing is just how much it feels like a classic Flaming Lips album; not in sound but in its general approach.
When comparing “Embryonic” to the band’s most iconic albums —“In a Priest Driven Ambulance” or “Soft Bulletin” come to mind — they all share a common sense of fearless creativity and a general drive to do whatever the hell they want everyone else be damned, which has come to characterize the band more than anything else ever will.
