A dark combination of heavy jams and psychedelic grooves, the Flaming Lips' new album "Emryonic" is a return to the band's roots.
Surpassing their 2006 release "At War With the Mystics" in both acclaim and musicianship, "Embryonic" is reminiscent of the band's unstructured jam-style sounds in their earlier '80s and '90s releases (e.g. "In a Priest Driven Ambulance" and "Telepathic Surgery").
As a generally dark and ambient album, "Embryonic" also varies greatly from 2002's Grammy-winning "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" - a more pop-based album, which earned the group mass audiences. Fans looking for radio hits like "Do You Realize" will be disappointed with the lack of standout single tracks on this album.
With a cohesive sound to all the tracks, distorted guitar, electric piano, strings, synthesizer and more add to the overall dense sound of the album.
Though the vocals on the track are well-produced and slightly harmonic, what are more noticeable are the intergalactic, trippy, ambiguous lyrics as found on the track "I Can Be a Frog," "She said I can be a lion/ I can be a guillemonster/ I can be a warrior Indian/ I can be a helicopter."
Adding to the otherworldly sound of this album, the stellar lyrics carry an astrology theme, with song titles like "Aquarius Sabotage," "Gemini Syringes," "Sagittarius Silver Announcement," "Scorpio Sword" and "Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast."
While it is hard to pick out single tracks from the album, as it works best when viewed as a compilation, notable tracks include the percussion-heavy "Your Bats" and the very ambient "Evil."
Overall, this album is a successful return to vintage Lips. With a grungy sound like the punk-rock of their early career, this album shows diversity and unpredictability from the group. While their may be no radio-friendly hits, this album is definitey worth a listen.
Check Out: "I Can Be A Frog," "Your Bats" and "Evil"
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