The Flaming Lips "Embryonic"

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

The sharp guitar note that cuts into the first song of The Flaming Lips’ latest album could just as easily be the siren of machines warming up. It resonates with the band’s signature noises, of distorted thudding drumbeats with Wayne Coyne’s soft voice, but Embryonic leads down a darker path than their recordings of the last decade. The collision of sounds throughout Embryonic is vaguely erratic, creating an environment of wandering exploration, as opposed to the more crowd-pleasing pop anthems of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.

The setting of Embryonic appears desolate, bleak, yet beautiful at the same time. The human presence comes in the form of stripped-back lyrics, screams (recorded from Karen O on the phone to Coyne) and the haunting voice of German mathematician Thorsten Wormann. Coyne’s voice weaves through the instrumentals: his lyrics stripped back into sound bites which are guided by the music. His words render a world of overwhelming gloom, with such lines as “I believe in nothing,” “Love is powerful / But not as powerful as evil,” and “A man holds a gun / There’s no explanation” to name but a few. It’s nothing new for The Flaming Lips to be eerie, but this sets another level of apocalyptic weariness.

Still, it remains a musically enchanting album, rich with some beautiful harmonies and rhythms. So, for one driving the empty roads through the night as they leave the city this summer, Embryonic would be the perfect soundtrack to heighten the senses and awaken the imagination. The album was released a couple of months ago, to general acclaim from reviewers who see an exciting development in musical direction for The Flaming Lips. Though the band are not straying far from the sounds of their previous albums, the title Embryonic suggests they are still developing. It seems they are refusing to be fully hatched yet, as they prove through the deviating character of this double album, there are still soundscapes to explore.