Editor’s note:  Everyone say hello to our new writer Aaron Quillen!  Here is his first review for the recent Flaming Lips disc. 

First and foremost, I have to say thank God for Wikipedia. Take this music review I am supposed to be writing. I would say I definitely am a fan of The Flaming Lips, though I only own two of their eleven albums, and I know very little of the band’s history. I did attend a Chicago premier of their informative DVD documentary Fearless Freaks last summer, but it is difficult to remember things that I heard only once a year ago. All I have to do to remedy this, is type in www.wikipedia.com, type The Flaming Lips in the search bar, and most likely will discover an entire history on the band submitted by some rabid fan who has already dedicated a ton of time researching. So, I guess instead, I should give thanks to that rabid fan, for making my job easier. 

Here’s what I found: The Flaming Lips, based out of Oklahoma City, OK, started playing together in 1983. After a few indie albums with cult followings, the band signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1990. Starting off in the typical modern guitar rock scene, by 1997 the band started experimenting with their recording sessions, becoming more of a psychedelic art-pop band. After six major label albums (including 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, both gaining critical acclaim) and only one hit single in the mid-90s, the Lips finally released their eleventh album, At War With the Mystics, in early April.

Based off previous listening experiences of Lips albums, I was anticipating this album to be utterly ridiculous. And it really is. In parts to an obnoxious point, but I don’t really mind.

At War With the Mystics opens with the appropriately titled and incredibly infectious “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” as the word yeah is half-sang/half-chanted a few hundred times throughout. Lead singer Wayne Coyne dominates this song and the next, “Free Radicals” with incredibly obnoxious vocals, with the opener being catchier and more tolerable.

The epic “The Sound of Failure/It’s Dark… Is it Always This Dark?” brings the funk along with the expansive synthesized instrumentation that I loved so much on The Soft Bulletin. The track goes a little lengthy as it transitions into the second, much slower section, but still stands out as probably the best track on the album.

The next two tracks, “My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion” and “Vein of Stars” sound somewhat similar, both slower two-chord pop songs with very nice melodies. The next standout tracks are the upbeat and funky “Mr. Ambulance Driver,” followed by the psychedelic second single from the album, “The W.A.N.D.”

In typical Flaming Lips fashion, the lyrics on At War With the Mystics (especially the ones about wizards and the cosmos) come across as nothing but nonsense. This silliness is what is so attractive about this and every other Flaming Lips album. Coyne and company are not at all afraid to do their own thing. The band is successful at being completely weird and making completely odd but somehow accessible pop songs. At War With the Mystics is no different. It is just another great pop masterpiece in a long line of brilliant albums from a brilliantly peculiar band. With another notch on their belt, it will be exciting to see where The Flaming Lips go next, as far off in the future as that may be.