The Flaming Lips, “Oczy Mlody” (Warner Bros. Records)
On the anniversary of David Bowie’s death, The Flaming Lips have done Ziggy Stardust proud.
With the 12-track “Oczy Mlody,” The Lips return with a moody, industrial and hypnotic CD that’s probably what Major Tom would be listening to, sitting in his tin can.
The Lips, always psychedelic and progressive, this time follow up their previous 2013 full-length CD, “The Terror,” with something lighter, less menacing and more whimsical.
How whimsical? How about the use of real frogs croaking? And the presence of Miley Cyrus (on the track “We a Family”). But there’s also danger lurking in the psychedelic-laden lyrics - severed eyes, edible butterflies and this question: “Have you ever seen someone die/in the summertime?”
The new CD is filled with ghosts, beeps and industrial squeaks, drum machines and cold, distorted voices. There are song fragments and sketches, and some songs have multiple threads crammed into one tune.
The song titles alone - “Listening To the Frogs With Demon Eyes” and “One Night While Hunting For Faeries and Witches and Wizards To Kill” - are simply insane. And if you dream of having sex while riding unicorns, you’re in luck: This is the album for you.
Songwriter and singer Wayne Coyne stumbled on the CD’s title in a Polish paperback. He speaks no Polish but liked the phrase “Oczy Mlody,” thinking it would be a cool name for a drug of the future.
That sums up this offering by the Flaming Lips perfectly: poised between madness and a joke, industrial sounds and toad croaks.
Bowie would surely approve.
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Mark Kennedy is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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