Random Review #57 The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

C3S7CD14 picked by @gliteratjewlz and ex colleague of mine, now running her own business, always laughing and always dying her hair random colours!

If I could use the words ‘a little bit mad’ to describe a band then this would be the time to use it, the Flaming Lips are definitely that, megaphones, animal costumes, and all manner of stage props make up a Flaming Lips live show and anyone that follows lead singer and main man @waynecoyne will understand that he seems to be dancing to a different tune than anybody else!

Looking at my iTunes Library I notice that I have versions of Kylie’s – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody both performed by The Flaming Lips and they perform both well staying true to the originals whilst adding a little bit of madness to each track.

This album was the second of three that were a real purple patch for the Flaming Lips that started with The Soft Parade and ended with At War With The Mystics, with these 3 albums they moved from cult underground band, to darlings of the music press and mainstream acknowledgement that aside the mad live show the music was really worth listening to.

The easiest comparison to the music of The Flaming Lips is Pink Floyd and the fact that this album is a concept album cements this likeness.  A concept albums means that the album tells a story which runs throughout the album and as the title of this infers this album is about Yoshimi battling the pink robots whatever that might mean. The songs merge into one another so that there is no silence on the album and if you understand the story you are a better man than me. We have ‘pretend’ live tracks with false applause but all in all there is enough here to keep you interested throughout the album. On a side note the first track Fight Test appears to have picked large parts of both lyrics and melody from Father and Son the Cat Stevens song. There is no acknowledgement inthe liner notes and if I was Yusef (as Cat is now called) I’d be ringing my lawyer now!

The albums released either side of this album are much more accessible to me, even if they are still as quirky, I’m not sure why, they just seem to flow better. Their last original album Embryonic was released last year and although I bought it I don’t seem to have listened to it much, which could mean it’s not very good or that I buy far too much music and don’t have time to listen to it!

Of late the Flaming Lips have released a cover version of Pink Floyds Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety, and I suspect they will continue walk a little bit left of centre of the norm and I guess that’s why I still like them.

Mark 6/10