Everyone’s doing retro pop these days.
The ’60s are long gone, but pop from that era is all over the place.
But left out of that is psychedelic pop — that LSD-fueled sub-genre that Pink Floyd started out in before building The Wall.
Leave it to The Flaming Lips to make sure that psychedelic pop is represented.
Now the Lips are no new entry into the music marketplace. If you’ve never heard of the band, it’s only because the members haven’t ventured out into the mainstream much. Sure they had the hit “She Don’t Use Jelly,” but that’s been the Oklahoma City-based trio’s lone chart hit.
You don’t hit the charts much when you release discs that require four bumbles to listen to Zaire or Clouds Taste Metallic, which solidified the group’s reputation as risk-takers with AM Pop’s sweet tooth.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The group’s latest release, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots follows in the footsteps of the band’s last CD, 1999’s The Soft Bulletin — sort of.
Gone is a lot of the grandiose, bombastic orchestration. In its place is a strange serenity that permeates. Like most Lips discs, this record flows not unlike a well-paced concept album. And boy is it cinematic. You can almost see the movie that you imagine is playing in singer Wayne Coyne’s head. And you find yourself wondering how his bandmates, Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins can see it. But they can, trust me on this one.
It’s strange how every sound fits. Other bands wouldn’t be able to overcome Coyne’s occasional warble. But the Lips actually make it an endearing trait. Likewise, most bands would struggle mightily to create just one epic song, much less an album that’s epic.
For the Flaming Lips, it’s no problem. The band hardly breaks a sweat.
Now don’t get me wrong. Songs such as the title track “In the Morning of Musicians,” “One More Robot” and “Ego Tripin’ at the Gates of Hell” are not the usual thing you might hear on the radio.
One thing the Lips know about is texture. And sonically, this album is as textured as a variety tray of sushi.
The most distinctive aspect of Yoshimi is the group’s use of synthesizers. The band intricately mixes the synth sounds with more natural string and horn sounds, as well as sitar, guitar and, of course, drums and bass. At times it is as if the band has taken the last 40 years of pop music and played it all back at once, separating elements to create a disc that is both outer-worldly and very grounded.
If you’re used to the banal two-and-a-half minute slices of pabulum the radio serves, the Lips may well fly right over your head. But if you stick it out, the strange beauty the band embodies will wash over you.
