The Flaming Lips

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For fun I turned on the Flaming Lips debut album.

Does it make me pretentious if I say I REALLY like it?
 
I like their early stuff too. Not nearly as much as what came later, but it's got a cool Jesus and Mary Chain thing happening.
 
I like their early stuff too. Not nearly as much as what came later, but it's got a cool Jesus and Mary Chain thing happening.

I was surprised by how post-punk they were. Reminded me a lot of that 80s punk scene that I like, but am not well-versed in.
 
I guess Wayne licensed a Clouds song for a new Kmart advertising commercial campaign. At least money from it gets sent to Ronald Jones. While most current and former fans dislike Wayne and his choices at least he has made good on making sure Ronald Jones gets royalties. I don't care about bands licensing songs to commercials these days. You do what you have to. Kmart is a sad department store chain and there's nothing they can do to rehab their image anyway.


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oczymlodycover.jpeg


Oczy Mlody

01 Oczy Mlody
02 How??
03 There Should Be Unicorns
04 Sunrise (Eyes of the Young)
05 Nigdy Nie (Never No)
06 Galaxy I Sink
07 One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill
08 Do Glowy
09 Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes
10 The Castle
11 Almost Home (Blisko Domu)
12 We a Famly

Polish for 'Eyes of the Young', apparently.

I am head over heels in love with the chick in this video



Song isn't ~great~, but it's not horrible either.

Second single How?? sounds really cool to my ears. Features his girlfriend in the film clip



It's all out Jan 13. I'm excited.
 
How?? has terrible lyrics.

And so far, that is my ONLY complaint about this album....what is everyone bitching about with it? All I've heard is that critics and early listeners are absolutely hating it.

I think it's fucking fantastic and probably my favorite thing they've released since....the 90s? Maybe...that's a bit of a stretch, but I'm thinking about it.
 
I liked what I heard of it this morning quite a bit. It has some good song titles.


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First impression: I don't care much for this. Not yet, anyway.

It's a weird album because it has the haze and mood of The Terror, but sweetens it up a bit with some sparkling melodies from time to time. That's an interesting progression but, unfortunately, it takes an enormous nosedive lyrically and thematically. Part of what made The Terror such a powerful, enveloping piece of work was its sense of purpose and brave dedication to maintaining an atmosphere that limited replay value but strengthened its message. Conversely, I'm not sure what Oczy Mlody is trying to say. It's like they felt they needed to put an album out but didn't have any real reason to, so they stayed in a similar headspace to the last album but tried to stretch out from it just a bit.
 
First impression: I don't care much for this. Not yet, anyway.

It's a weird album because it has the haze and mood of The Terror, but sweetens it up a bit with some sparkling melodies from time to time. That's an interesting progression but, unfortunately, it takes an enormous nosedive lyrically and thematically. Part of what made The Terror such a powerful, enveloping piece of work was its sense of purpose and brave dedication to maintaining an atmosphere that limited replay value but strengthened its message. Conversely, I'm not sure what Oczy Mlody is trying to say. It's like they felt they needed to put an album out but didn't have any real reason to, so they stayed in a similar headspace to the last album but tried to stretch out from it just a bit.


Interesting. Wayne Coyne's interview in today's Times further reinforces the view that they had no idea what they were trying to do, really.


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I'm finding it difficult to get into Oczy Mlody. Will give it a few more chances though as Flaming Lips records are hardly ever immediate for me.

It did make me go back to The Terror however. I'd almost forgotten how fantastic that album is.
 
Man do I have some thoughts about this shitheap of an album.

I've defended The Flaming Lips longer than most. I think Embryonic is their best album and for a long time thought their inanity since that album has been at best really quite good (Heady Fwends) and at worst entertaining (six-hour song about Mario Bros). I thought The Terror achieved its modus operandi even if it wasn't a very enjoyable album and not something I'd ever turn to unless I was balls-deep in a panic attack/existential crisis.

But when Oczy Mlody was announced I was much more like "........yayyyy..." than "OMFG", just because I feared for its quality. As it turns out that was with good reason. This new album I think can best be described as an electronic take on a Soft Bulletin-Embryonic mashup. On the surface that has the potential to be pretty damn great, but, unfortunately, The Flaming Lips (read: Wayne Coyne domineering and Steven Drozd just strung out and not caring) seem to have lost all ability to make good music.

The good first - How?? is quite a good song. The Castle is unashamedly Soft Bulletin/Yoshimi-lite, and can't really hold a candle to most of the songs on those records, but in and of itself is a good tune. The ONE song on this album where they actually properly commit to the electrofreakout Soft Embryonic vibe - One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill - is genuinely great and proves that they have the potential to pull it off. It feels like there is something at stake. It's a good song that adds up to be more than the sum of its (pretty great) parts. This is all not to say that it's top-tier Lips, just that it's the best thing here.

But the rest of this record is just forgettable. It's all low-stakes, lightweight drug fantasy crap, with incredibly boring, vapid lyrics and interminable music. It's a real shame, because the potential is there. But with seemingly no one riding quality control a band I once Truly Madly Deeply loved has just turned into this insular band contracting their audience into their own shitty niche. And it's a real shame. :(
 
Whereas you seem to dislike the album for not sounding like what you think the Flips should sound like, I applaud the album from being a soaring, peaceful, moving departure from the random bullshit they sometimes put out.
 
We shall have to agree to disagree. Nonetheless, Hunting for Faeries fucking rules and the title track intro and How are great too.


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I've never been a fan of the argument that a band is supposed to sound a certain way, otherwise they apparently don't care. That's not fair at all, you can't possibly know how much of their collective effort went into this album.
 
I've been away from the forums forever but this used to be one of my favorite parts of Interference.

I used to LOVE the Flaming Lips. I have, sadly, developed a real palpable dislike for Wayne and this record kind of taught me why. I tried to listen and just hate it. I find myself hating a lot of hipster music lately.

Old guy problems I know. I will always treasure Yoshimi-era stuff, but I am done with them otherwise.
 
I don't think the album is that bad, just wandering and purposeless. The last couple of full Flaming Lips albums had a real narrative drive and unique characteristics, but Oxy Moldy sounds like The Terror, Dead Petz and Soft Bulletin in a blender, with the results being what happens any time you mix a bunch of random colors together: a dull blob.
 
I struggle with the lyrics on this album. Steven does lay down a great musical bed though. But he always does.


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I never was much into The Flaming Lips,
but I think this album is great :shrug:

Granted, I haven't spent any time with the lyrics.
But as long as lyrics don't truly suck (*cough* Coldplay *cough*) I usually don't mind.
 
This album feels like the longest thing I have ever heard, like 4 times its run-time. It took me three stages to get through it because it is so fucking plodding.
 
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