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Condition: Brand New Factory Sealed
The Flaming Lips have crafted some of rock's most seamless albums, discs unified sonically and conceptually. Given major-domo Wayne Coyne's fondness for zigging when he's expected to zag, it's not all that surprising that the years-in-the-making At War with the Mystics all but entirely dispenses with that blueprint, instead delivering a multi-directional blast of tunes spanning the Lips' entire comfort zone. Folks drawn to the dreamscapes of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will relish easing into the pillowy "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion," on which multiple Coynes, backed by multiple synthesizers, urge rejection of the outside world's negativity. He ups the ante in terms of sheer flamboyance on the tympani-laced mini-symphony "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung," which reconciles prog-rock values with a Sesame Street worldview. The Lips depart from that sunny-day outlook more often here than they have in ages, however, dealing with real-world issues for the first time in ages -- something that's most palpable on the fuzzed-out psych-rock nugget "W.A.N.D. (Will Always Negates Defeat)." That song's call to arms is matched by the aggression of the partly a cappella, fully weirded-out "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," on which Coyne challenges his audience to prove they wouldn't sell their souls given the right offer. And while such temptations have doubtlessly crossed the Lips' path in recent times, At War with the Mystics is filled with evidence that they're still too smart to take the bait.
TRACK LISTINGS
1 The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
2 Free Radicals
3 The Sound of Failure
4 My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
5 Vein of Stars
6 The Wizard Turns On...
7 It Overtakes Me
8 Mr. Ambulance Driver
9 Haven't Got a Clue
10 The W.A.N.D.3:25
11 Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung 4:21
12 Goin' On
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