Sometimes there are albums that after just one listen leave an indelible mark in your head. They strike with an immediacy borne of a certain hook or a melody or perhaps a percussive loop that simply won’t dislodge from the back of your skull.
However that is not to say that a class album necessarily has to embody such qualities to be good. Sometimes you have to live with something for a while to appreciate just what it can deliver. The latest album “At War With The Mystics” by The Flaming Lips could quite comfortably fall into the latter camp.
Those familiar with the output of this band will have a fair idea of what’s going on (well as much as you can with this lot). Wayne Coyne remains as ever slightly preoccupied with some of life’s more grandiose schemes on this release, the rest of the time lyrically it’s a little tricky to figure out where he’s going. Sometimes the beauty of his work lies in the na?ve/skewed optimism of his lyrics as evidenced in the single “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”, simultaneously he has a knack with subtle melancholy which if anything is emphasised by his reed thin vocalisations.
Musically you get the impression that time and a great deal of it has been spent on this album. There is dare I say it a slightly progressive sound circa the 70’s in places. The sound is primordially complex taking in the warmth of old soul arrangements while simultaneously dropping splashes of psychedelia in places. Thankfully it manages to escape sounding flabby or self indulgent and you find yourself best rewarded with a lot of the tracks when you don’t try too hard to draw from them. Allow them to work on you in their own time and that’s when you start discovering some of the album’s little gems.
Of course there are still moments of immediacy on here, proven by the singles choices that have been cut from the album already. The recent “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” with its hook laden refrain and its folk/psychedelia tinged bittersweetness.. “Mr Ambulance Driver” with its reflections on life and death at the scene of an accident has a macabre warmth to it.
Highlights of the album for me were the majestic “The Sound Of Failure/Is It Always Dark”. Coyne’s voice struggles to break through the dense instrumentation but musically I keep finding something new to like in this one and the use of instrumentation reminds me a little of The Avalanches. The slightly Prince inspired leanings of “Free Radicals” with the pitch it high vocal and the ethereal and slightly sad “My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion” are also worthy of note and have the potential to translate into quality live prospects.
This is a definite grower of an album that should live in your collection, long after the lustre and sheen of those more obvious pop releases have faded.
