However, these drug-dealing and taking youths are less born to run than destined to get shipwrecked by the hedonism that was meant to set them free the protagonist in the profoundly moving ode to friendship “At the Movies on Quaaludes” is all too aware that the dope they guzzle to fuel dreams of stardom (‘’someday we’ll be rich/we’ll be famous fools’’) may well led to consciousnesses being irretrievably suspended rather than mind-expansion.Īmerican Head is not entirely devoid of gonzo antics. On the run from conventional society’s rules and mores, the set of characters that populate American Head share some of the romantic yearning of early Bruce Springsteen. Yet songs like the hypnotic, heartbreaking “Brother Eye” (with Coyne pleading his brother Tom – imagined or real? – not to die), wearily resigned “Mother I’ve Taken LSD” and the desolately majestic “Will You Return/When You Come Down” (full of the existential dread of 2013’s underrated The Terror, albeit with unfathomable sadness replacing that album’s anxious abrasiveness) hit where it hurts – hard - in a way that seems entirely fresh. The longing and keen sense of the impermanence of existence that infuse these 13 tracks (with the band’s current expansive seven-piece line-up strengthened by excellent guest vocalist Kacey Musgraves) are nothing new. The homespun orchestrations, bittersweetly fragile melodies and swerves from intimate melancholy to euphorically ascending surges nod (and notably don’t pale next to: American Head constitutes a major return to form) towards the genius of The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). had crossed paths with the druggy circles Coyne’s brothers moved in? The thematically linked songs written from this outlandish premise reignite the cosmic loneliness, deeply felt empathy and uplift in the face of fragility of life that has powered the Lips’ finest works. Having learned that pre-Heartbreaks Tom Petty was dispatched to Tulsa, Oklahoma to sharpen his act with early band Mudcrutch before taking on the music biz in LA at around the same early-70’s point when Coyne’s older brothers were peddling acid in the city, the Flaming Lips dreamed up another eyebrow-raising concept for American Head. Madcap projects such as track-by-track tributes to classics by Pink Floyd and The Beatles, a song lasting 24 hours and an album (2017’s Oczy Mlody) devoted to luridly whimsical cartoon psychedelia have made few overt attempts at appealing to anyone outside of The Flaming Lips camp. Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)Ħ.The band’s more recent projects have seemed to retract deeper into an insular bubble.
Check out a full list of tour dates here and the Soft Bulletin Companion tracklist below.ģ. The Lips are also heading out on a massive world tour that sees them traversing North America and the UK over the course of the next year. Soft Bulletin Companion will be available to the masses this Friday (July 16). The new version will also include a previously unreleased track: an early mix of “1000 ft. The project was originally released as a promo CD to correspond with the Lips' 1999 album The Soft Bulletin.It consisted of unreleased material, outtakes, early mixes, B-sides, international bonus tracks, and stereo versions of songs from Zaireeka. After re-releasing Soft Bulletin Companion on vinyl for Record Store Day's June drop, The Flaming Lips are mass-releasing the collection of rarities on multiple formats, including vinyl, CD and digital.
0 kommentar(er)
