Flaming Lips – “Embyronic” Review at Passion of the Weiss

I reviewed the new Flaming Lips album for Passion of the Weiss. Embyronic hit me like no other album has hit me this year. The album is the sound of media overload, 2009 wrapped up in a hairy package floating in space. As usual, click the excerpt below to read the whole thing.

Embyronic’s genesis stemmed from casual jam sessions, later sculpted into more cohesive overdubbed. The result is an enigmatic collection of songs, one galactic in scope and sound, even on the shorter numbers. For a band so strongly focused on grand statements about life and death just an album ago, it’s startling to hear the Lips spinning out abstracted space jams. Imagine if your weedhead uncle sobered up and discovered Jesus. Embryonic is the sound of him jamming with his old band, a rusty vaporizer smoking in the corner. The album rescues the Lips from the Styxian path of the NPR-approved alt rock band, positioning them as psychedelic astronauts exploring the dimensions of their practice room.