Never been to a Flaming Lips concert? Don’t worry—now we’ve got Embryonic. The band’s latest release solidifies their image as an improvisational experiment in sound. Clocking in at over 70 minutes, this double album reveals a surprisingly dark side to a band who won a Grammy for their cheery material around the turn of the millennium.
Embryonic explores the duality of pleasant and cacophonous sounds by exploiting their reputation for spontaneity. Inspired by the jazz of Miles Davis, the Flaming Lips developed the album out of a series of free-form jam sessions in multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd’s basement. On Embryonic, the band acts as a jazz ensemble—each member showcases his talents in solo form on certain tracks. Similarly, frontman Wayne Coyne limits his vocal contributions throughout the album to focus on the interaction between instrumentation and electronics.
On the first track, “Convinced of the Hex,” listeners are forced into the Flaming Lips’ creative realm through a bombardment of screeching guitar, heavy bass, pounding drums, and rough shuffling. “See the Leaves” kicks off equally in-your-face, before backing off to a single, haunting electronic line about two-thirds of the way through. “Leaves” is the best approximation of the Lips’ approach to the album: mixing noise and beauty in the tradition of the finest experimentalists.
By the time the Lips clinch the album with “Watching the Planets,” you see just how well the album is put together. With Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) supporting Coyne on vocals, melodic themes developed over the course of the album join together to create countermelodies like a fugue, melding the whole album together.
Embryonic, with its gritty sound balanced by their characteristic ethereal tendencies, marks a creative departure for the Flaming Lips: the album is self-aware of being directionless. However, this experimental approach gives the band creative liberty to get in touch with the darker recesses of their musical genius. With electronics as the primary focus of the album, it’s a masterpiece in sound mixing. Embryonic isn’t trying to prove anything, but it does prove that after 26 years, The Flaming Lips can still put together a monumentally creative record.
Voice’s Choices: “Colourless Color,” “I’m Not Your Toy,” “Fascination”
