Flaming Lips Back to Bizarre With Embryonic

'Sprawling' double album should please longtime fans
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 12, 2009 1:14 PM CDT
Flaming Lips Back to Bizarre With Embryonic
Wayne Coyne of 'The Flaming Lips' performs at the VH1 Rock Honors “The Who” on Saturday July 12, 2008 in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

The Flaming Lips are no stranger to reinvention, having transformed “from garage-punk misfits into a splendorous, kaleidoscopic rock outfit,” then later “into a sophisticated, sincere symphonic-pop troupe bestowed with increasing commercial acclaim.” The release of Embryonic marks another sea change—and it’s the band's boldest effort since 1997's Zaireeka, writes Stuart Berman for Pitchfork. “There's a raw directness to Embryonic that's been largely absent from Lips records since the mid-'90s.”

The double album, like the band’s film Christmas on Mars, marks a return to the Lips' "bizarro roots.” It “ruminates on themes of madness, isolation, and hallucinogenic horror, translating them into an unrelentingly paranoid, static-soaked acid-rock epic,” Berman continues. “Even in its slighter moments, Embryonic exhibits a renewed sense of fearless freakery for a band who so recently threatened to lapse into stagy routine.” (More Flaming Lips stories.)

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