The Mystics are going down

How much do I like the Flaming Lips? Like watermelon...or sandals with pressure points drawn on them...or a panda with a sad face...or a Sunday when you wake up and it's raining....well, I like them more than hard bread.

If you recognize that quote you receive 18 cool points.

But a more accurate account of how much I like the Flaming Lips is that I actually went through the trouble of going to Best Buy and buying their latest CD, At War With The Mystics. This is the first CD I’ve purchased a hard copy of in about 3 years. And I most certainly haven’t been disappointed.

The reviews I had read were that this album was amazing, but not as amazing as their previous two. It’s a hard thing to have your work embraced by the rock snobs and have to continue living up to that standard. Not only to they have to continue to be great, but they have to be great in innovative new ways. I really hated how Beck’s latest CD got lambasted by some critics. They didn’t like the CD because he didn’t completely reinvent himself like he had on previous albums. Guess what? We like Beck! We like Beck to sound like Beck! That album was great, as is this one.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Flaming Lips are pretty out there. An example of their eccentricity: one of their previous albums came on four CDs that are meant to be played simultaneously. They’re crazy, and that’s why we love them.

I admit, this album is a step less crazier than Yoshimi, but I think that’s going to make it more accessible to the general public. Crazily enough they have even taken tracks from this album and put them on movie soundtracks. Perish the thought!

However, I have two pieces of advice for this album. Firstly, listen to it all the way through. The songs link into one another and it is in fact a concept album. I had to turn off the shuffle feature on my iPod so I could get the album in the intended order (it has been playing in my ears for the last 3 days.) Secondly, the experience is greatly amplified with a reasonable sound system. There are many 3D effects and if you’re playing it out of your laptop speakers you’re going to miss lots of what’s going on.

Flaming Lips. Great stuff. Love them, buy them, tell your friends to buy them.

Song of the moment: “It overtakes Me/The stars Are So Big . . . I Am So Small . . . Do I Stand A Chance?” The Flaming Lips