Flaming Lips
"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
(Warner Brothers)
For all the loyal Flaming Lips fans out there anxiously anticipating the
next release, its here as of July 16th. The good news and bad news is this
record is not "Soft Bulletin" 2. For those that have not listened
to the Lips much, but have the insight and taste to know of the band’s
ingenuity, creativity, experimentation and overall sense of pop music, buy
"Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots".
Buy the "Soft Bulletin" to experience a masterpiece and Yoshimi
for the newness and richness. "Yoshimi" is head and shoulders above
the average release by any band. Granted, it is different from Soft Bulletin
or Zaireeka! in that it seems a little less cohesive or concept oriented.
However, it is conceptual, outer-space oriented and experimental like their
prior releases, but the songs don’t seem to have the song-to-song relationships
of the prior releases. There are a couple of fantastic stories told here,
rather than one central theme. It seems to be a collection of stories and
feelings by the band. If anyone had the pleasure to see the Soft Bulletin
tour, you probably realized during the show how much it rocked live. I mean
ROCKED – rock & roll rock. Unless the volume is turned up, the Soft
Bulletin sounds a little bit like soft rock because of the smooth production
work. Dave Fridmann continues to lend his expertise to the production of Yoshimi
and recreates the velvet sound.
The most exciting item of interest on "Yoshimi" isWayne’s
deeply internal lyrics. Despair, encouragement, struggle, fight or flight,
peace and love control the lyric content. This CD is heavy and introspective.
Tracks like "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 2" rock with electronic
experimentation. This is the 3rd part of the Yoshimi trilogy on this disc
that documents the success of Yoshimi defeating the Pink Robots. "One
more Robot" begins the very interesting science-fiction story of the
sympathetic robot. By the way, Yoshimi is alive. She is Yoshimi P-we. She
plays with the group the "Boredoms" and is the leader of her own
band "OOIOO." She is the disturbing scream you hear electonically
bent in "Pt. 2". Yoshimi P-we and the Flaming Lips became friends
while they were playing on the 1994 Lollapallooza tour.
"Do You Realize" is the first single and of course has the conceptual
space scenery and familiar sound of the Flaming Lips. It redirects the listener
to understand the reality of our delicate nature of living on a rock that
circles a fiery orb.
"Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon - Utopia Planitia" ends the
disc as an instrumental conclusion. A thoughtful ending and classic move by
the Lips to give the listener closure.
"But, with any luck, such will be music's triumph over the psyche that
this concoction of confusing companions with it's story-telling acid rock
(I guess??) and it's theme of sunshine funerals will render its listeners
powerless to study or analyze it and enable them to sit back and - hopefully
for a couple of minutes at a time - just simply be... entertained." Wayne
Coyne – April 2002
I agree with Wayne, the most important thing you can do with music is listen
and enjoy the ride. Enjoy this complex, emotional and "acid rock".
-marc
The Flaming Lips
"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
(Warner Brothers)
In a music world where the copycat prevails, The Lips first give them the
bird, then give them the runaround. From Transmissions of the Satellite Hearts,
we draw the truest nature of the Lips' modus operandi. They have departed
farther and farther with the advent of each new record since then, but not
necessarily in a bad way. Yoshimi is an overdeveloped concept album on purpose.
Wayne Coyne never assumes anyone wants to hear a story, so he draws you in
from song one. The dynamics are anything but mild on this album. On the title
track "…pt. 1" of the album, acoustic guitar tracks, warped
by slowing tape, kick it off followed shortly thereafter by a dominating drum
track. This is a total audio experience all wrapped in plastic and a jewel
case. If you love grooves dig on "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt.
2", and if you're into the art of unadulterated songwriting, check out
"Do You Realize?".
-Jeff
