Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

If Embryonic is anything it's one giant kick square in the testicles to U2. Now don't worry I'm not going to morosely bash U2 like so many other boorish wannabe critics, but no one can deny that The Flaming Lips are showing up their fellow veteran rockers. Not just U2, but The Red HotChilli Peppers, The Rolling Stones and the recently departed Oasis could all take a page out of the Lips book. Embryonic sees the Lips throw out the cozy feel good melodic psych rock garb they'd been wearing since 1999's jaw dropping The Soft Bulletin and returning to their experimental roots. Don't get me wrong the Lips had been making some tremendous music andAt War From The Mystics wasn't even close to being a bad record, but the wheels were beginning to fall off. The Lips were becoming comfortable and cozy, when they used to be daring and provocative but unlike so many of their peers they took creative risks embraced experimentalism and returned to their early vibrant sound and the sense of adventure that made the Lips so compelling in the first places. It may cost them dearly in sales but betweenSoft Bulletin and Yoshimi... I doubt the Lips have much to worry about. So we are now greeted with Embryonic a double album bursting at the seems with creativity, it's big, it's bold, it's challenging but most of all it's absolutely thrilling, something that At War With The Mysticssimply couldn't manage.

Embryonic is an album that's kicks into life in top gear, they're holding nothing back, they don't greet you gently with a familiar hit, instead we're thrusting in a grand bold sci fi opera. The first six tracks on this album form a mini magnum opus, as we're thrust into a large hauntingsoundscape that warps and evolves sonically. From the first minute Embryonic has a feel similar to that of Kid A, it's haunting and desolate, there are big wide opens spaces, and the arrangements that feel inhuman, with metallic clangs, burbles of static and aggressive thuds of percussion. Of course this is the Flaming Lips so while the mood immediately feels darker and more solemn the music is still centred around these grand melodic sweeps and beautiful crescendos. However this record has a real feel of hopelessness even helplessness for humanity itself it's not far removed from full on depression. The first disk is centred around two bold companion pieces Evil and If containing simple hooks:

The Former (Evil) is harsh empty and metallic, starting only with these sparse radiating chimes, it feels like the unholy offspring of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and 2001, it's a powerful atmospheric piece that swells beautifully but always thrashes back to it's cold inhuman core, it's a great open nightmarish soundscape. If on the other hand is equally sparse but more dreamlike almost verging on a nursery rhyme, it has a real artificial quality and desolate quality. It doesn't feel like a strong rebuttal for human kind, instead it feels like are last helpless whimper. A measly but honest justification for human kind.

Convinced Of The Hex the albums opener is an absolute riot, starting with alien chimes and bursts of mutated guitar before slowly revealing an incredible hook and a hypnotic bassline. It's certainly a track that grows on you over time, on a first listen its intriguing but awkward but give it time and a groove laden anthem is reveal, imagine Tomorrow Never Knows composed by robots from out of space and you'll be beginning to get the idea. The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine is another clear stand out, it feels like the love child of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robotsand Waiting For Superman except this time the robots win and superman doesn't show up. It's an incredibly rich and well layered track, with effects, samples and a Wayne Coyne freakout all laid ontop of a thick downtuned Sabbath sized bass grove. It's a real contrast to the albums more spacious numbers and it contains some powerful reflective lyricism "What, What Does It Mean To Dream What You Dream, To Believe What You See". It's a rich and intense experience matched only by lead single Silver Trembling Hands now this track kicks like a motherfucker led by a pounding rhythm section that rarely relents. It's utterly otherworldly and seems to switch between a nightmarish bad trip and sheer euphoria. At times it feels like your listening to the unholy love child of Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Radiohead and Ed Wood, and then you think nah this could only ever be The Flaming Lips.

Disk one is a truly superb sonic experience bursting at the seams with life, energy and creativity, musically it's a real breath of fresh air, the tracks tie together perfectly and float majestically across an assortment of moods and themes all tied together by a sense of hopelessness and a churning groove. The albums great strength is it's pacing, it's so wide open, while it has it's pulsating furious moments it's not afraid to really draw things out, let a groove or an idea evolve organically. This can be seen on the atmospheric pieces Gemini Syringes (featuring a German Mathematician), Sagittarius Silver Announcement and The Impulse there's no sense of urgency on these tracks there allowed to float delicately letting the listener become absorbed within them before they are thrown headlong into a pulsating outer spacial bass jam. However the results are not always so successful Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast could easily have been trimmed and in isolation these tracks offer little.

The second half of Embryonic is more spotty and sporadic, the first CD felt like a close knit unit, it was musically divergent but thematically tied and it held together beautifully. The second half never quite comes together it feels spasmodic, it undoubtedly contains some of Embryonic's high points but it feels weighed down by it's own creativity and feels unsatisfying. It's starts well enough with the powerhouse mostly instrumental piece Powerless, it's the album's coldest moment, it's jagged, it's challenging but it's wondrous tied together by a subversive rhythmic hook before Coyne's gorgeous and hypnotic vocal hook is revealed at the five and a half minute mark and they conjured the sense that the musical arrangement is pummelling Coyne into submission. Before life is restored by The Ego's Last Stand a captivating five and half minute epic that feels like the album's real "fuck yeah" moment after Coyne promises absolution if one destroys one's own ego and the track explodes into life. From then on in Embryonic is a bit all over the place, best exemplified by the much criticised Karen O collaboration I Can Be A Frog it's utterly ridiculous but brimming with charm, it's hopeful, uplifting and most of all funny. It shows that the Lips haven't lost their sense of humour but it does serve to puncture Embyronic's well developed atmosphere which falters towards the albums tail end despite the best efforts of Worm Mountain and Watching The Planets.

So can a somewhat hit and miss finale dampen Embyronic? Not in a million years, this one of 2009's few true must have LPs. It may be the rock and roll's biggest cliche but this is the LipsWhite Album moment, yes they could certainly have left some tracks on the cutting room floor or tried to make the album more refined and smoother running but it simply wouldn't be the same. This is the sound of a band exploding with creativity who want to tackle the big questions, every inch of this album is huge, it's spacious, it's dramatic and it's an utter epic. It's like the Star Wars trilogy, sure there are some low points but the journey and spectacle are irresistible.Embryonic is completely open ended, I can't convey to you how vast this record feels and you have to become absorbed within it. However this is not a welcoming experience, it's captivating but it's not friendly, it's not cozy and it's not particularly uplifting, recent converts to the Lips may find themselves alienated but it's worth sticking with because there are great thrills and remarkable beauty to be uncovered. It does require seventy minutes of your time and it's an album that has to be heard in it's entirety, few of the tracks stand alone, you have to sit down, chill out and allow yourself to be enveloped by the vast soundscapes. Trust me I tried to listen to this record while working out at the gym and it really doesn't work and dragged awfully. But if you can find an hour of your time to get lost in the world of the Flaming Lips you won't regret it, and you'll be hard pressed to find a more expansive, creative and atmospheric album than Embryonic. It's a daring landmark moment in the career of one of the world's most intriguing and brilliant bands don't let it pass you by.