Flaming Lips- At War With The Mystics: Review
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Flaming Lips- At War with the MysticsEvery now and then you get an album of epic proportions, At War With the Mystics is one of them. Something within this album leaps out, enters your brain and makes you want to change the world. By attacking human ignorance and the inability to control our desires, the Lips seek to open our eyes to the ever-widening gap between culture and self-indulgence. Without being overly controversial they prove rock and roll can be fun but still deadly serious.
The first two tracks (‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’ and ‘Free Radicals’) jump straight into the debate, using crunching distorted guitar riffs to attack George W and his world of mass consumerism. The album then adopts a more sombre tone, taking you on an airplanesqe embryonic journey, gently drifting in and out of surrealism. Bouncing round like a hallucinating beach ball, the songs jump from spacey acoustic rock (‘Vein of Stars’, ‘Haven’t Got a Clue’) to trippy electrified pop (‘The Wizard Turns On’, ‘Mr. Ambulance Driver’), creating a psychedelic jamboree.
If Pink Floyd and Jefferson Airplane had a love child, then this album would be the sound they’d create. The Flaming Lips continue to ask the right questions. Much like Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin, At War With the Mystics will be remembered for combining honey with mud.
posted by Nick Fulton @ 5:04 pm
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