Embryonic: Excellent Album

The Flaming Lips most recent album of original music, which came out in 2009, (their other new album was a cover of Floyd's Darkside of the Moon), is one of my favorite new albums of the past few years, and even the past decade. The Flaming Lips are band that have swayed between several different musical styles, often mixing electronic and rock sounds together. Some of their albums I have found particulary dull, such as "Soft Bulletin", and to a lesser extent, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots". These albums I would consider too much in line with standard, boring indie fare of today, although "Yoshimi..." should be lauded for being a semi-concept album in this day and age of singles rather than albums. Embryonic is also a semi-concept album, not exactly telling a story, but all the tracks are united by common themes and common sound. This is an album to sit down and listen to the whole way through.

While not all of the tracks can stand for themselves, they are all intruiging to listen to, and I enjoyed every bit of the album. All too much these days albums are essentially three songs the band put a lot of work and production into, and the rest of the album is just filler. Since the album is well over an hour long, I will just discuss a few of the tracks that really stood out for me.

"The Sparrow looks up at the Machine" is the second song on the album and my favorite. The song's guitar and vocals are heavily destorted. The rythmic pounding of the drums and heavy, heavy bass puts you into a trance like state almost from the beginning. The songs lyrics, about finding truth in an age of machines, and the numerous mentions of dreams fit perfectly with the music, which as well as putting one into a dream like state, also feel almost like industrial equipment pounding away in a factory.

My other favorite song from this album was "Worm Mountain". I am not sure of the significance of the song's meaning, but this one I like just for the sound its self. Similar to "The Sparrow... the guitar and bass are really distored and heavy. Really, Really distorted and heavy. The riffs and bass hooks are really catchy too.

Last but not least, my third favorite song, "The Ego's Last Stand". The song has a really catchy double bass line. It is one of the more minimilistic songs on the album, being mainly just bass, a touch of percussion and singing for most of the song. Towards the end the drums and guitar kick in, making for a terrific crescendo as the finale.