Embryonic

You know EMBRYONIC is going to be great as soon as you hear the first minute or so of the first track, "Convinced of the Hex" -- it sounds like a higher energy update of Can's  TAGO MAGO . Then follows "The Sparrow Looks Up At the Machine," another high energy track, and we are lofted into another dimension.The album alternates brilliantly between rocking fast numbers, some with frantic drum&bass rhythms, and slower more ambient ones. The lyrics are not totally transparent, but to me they suggest a dark meditation on the illusion of free will and in particular the contradiction between A) a pantheistic sense of being one with Nature and other species and beings, and B) the realization that there is no morality in nature. In what might seem to be a twist on THE MATRIX, the imagery here of "The Machine" from which we seek liberation in Nature might actually *be* Nature, a Vast Amoral System.This is a dark, wild trip. In the past I found what I had heard of the Flaming Lips to tend toward the precious, poppy, and cutesy. Wayne Coyne's falsetto voice in particular was not appealing. EMBRYONIC explodes out of that mold with a jagged, often dissonant, exhilarating sound!Without a doubt one of the best albums of 2009 and of the first decade of the New Millennium.

This album is a perfect example of music that has been labelled "experimental", yet isn't pretentious nonsense. It's got loud "rocking-out"moments, quieter more introspective moments of beautiful melancholy, great lyrics, and like other Lips albums, evokes a unique and distinctive mood--which might be better described as a state of consciousness--that no other music can. A trippy and wonderful album. I've been listening to this thing for years and it never gets old! I haven't ever taken drugs, but I don't need to--I've got the Lips.

This is a great album, especially considering as it's coming 20 years into this band's career. They gone from jangly post-punk through a heavy synth-keyboard lyrical phase on to this dark, experimental kind of journey. There are passages that sound like something that Pink Floyd could have done - atmospheric keyboards, background voices... riffs or just single notes that bring the Beatles or Hendrix to mind -- the weird lyrics almost channeling early Black Sabbath, but they make perfect sense within the context of the cd; this band takes all these influences and makes something unique from them -- some very nice bass and drum work; cool use of dynamics in the music; a lot of things going on at once; I think one has to listen to this as a complete work -- some songs wouldn't necessarily be something that would be affecting on their own but fit in very well when you listen to the whole album. I played a couple of songs off this last night for an Australian in a trance music bar in a rural outpost in Japan and he thought it sounded very British but the Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma. They don't make albums like this anymore...not many, anyway.

First off, if you are considering buying this album, don't let the negative reviews scare you off; Embryonic is as well-executed (and as challenging to listen to) as any previous release in The Flaming Lips catalog. No, none of the songs are destined for Top 40 positions, and will probably only receive airplay on college, public, and alternative radio, which is exactly where they belong.Embryonic is sonically challenging, like a trompe l'oeil for your ears, but nothing that you shouldn't be able to wrap your head around after a few listens. I listened to it for the second time last night and was surprised at what a beautiful album it is. I know that several reviewers have mentioned that Embryonic is unforgivably noisy, but I assure you, every note is there for a reason.

Not as good as some of the older albums

Embryonic is the type of album that rewards repeated listening sessions, just like all great albums do. Even better, the Flaming Lips have had the forethought to produce a high resolution audio version on DVD which grants a whole other series of rewards itself. To me, the high-res version is the "real" album here -there is that much difference in the listening experience.As with all great psychedelic music, Embryonic will take you places. With the high-res, you'll be going there in a Jaguar; with the MP3s or CD audio, its a Toyota or something.There are no singles on this album. No catchy radio songs. No goofy songs about animals, food products or insects. Well, just one of those and that one, I Can Be A Frog, is infectious. Embryonic is the worthy psychedelic successor to the Flaming Lips' brilliant 4-Simultaneously-Played-CD album, Zaireeka, and that is the album closest in their canon that this can be directly compared with. If you loved Zaireeka, this is the album for you.Now, for the masses of fans that love the Lips primarily due to The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, I think this album will test how far you are willing to go with this band. Some have compared it to Radiohead's Kid A for that reason, and I concur. It doesn't sound anything like Kid A, but it resembles the shift required of the fans to follow the band's shift in direction. And for those that love Kid A, you know there is a big payoff waiting for you with Embryonic.

This is a very interesting concept album that explores the darker parts of the human psyche through the perspective of an atheist. I am not an atheist myself, so that made this record all the more challenging and interesting. As far as the musical approach, I have heard nothing like this album by the Lips, or by anyone else. It really embraces simple melody structure, while hammering and fluttering with layered synth,buzzed out drums, and guitar riffs that are peculiarly and uniquely distorted. This record plays around with some downright bizarre synth and guitar sounds, formerly nonexistent in anybody's sonic library. Combine these unique, often chilling, musical expressions with Wayne Coyne's haunting vocal style, and you have a glimmering, unique, and unsettling gem of a record.

I was not born when The Flaming Lips began recording music but by the time I took notice (mid nineties), their music had already been through so many permutations. Their early records had quite a few flavours, but generally occupied the space of "loud, distorted psyche rock", like a less jokey Butthole Surfers. Once they signed with Warner Brothers, they refined this sound for a few albums and by 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, seemed to be adding a subversive pop element that must have seemed pretty exciting.However (and I'm aware that I'm in the minority here) their next three records, while clearly offering something as evidenced by their massive success, are just not the kind of music I am interesting in (especially At War With The Mystics, which irritated me hugely). By this point, the Flaming Lips had become something different altogether. While I'm sure there is crossover, there are definetely fans who enjoy the early work but not the later days stuff, and vice versa.Embryonic is something of a risk. It could have been something fans from both "early days" and "later days" camp could embrace, or neither. It is definetely not a fusion of both styles, or an updating/nostalgia trip to the old style and it's certainly not a commercial album. Calling to mind Tangerine Dream ("Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast"), Paul's Boutique ("Silver Trembling Hands") and of course the Lips themselves, the record is a perfect sonic trip through songs, soundscapes and loud psyche jam territory. It's a really easy album to listen to if you have ever ventured happily away from pop music, but it's not likely to win over fans of the pop single format.I'm usually wary of late-period releases being termed masterpieces, but for my money this is slightly better than even "Clouds Taste Metallic" or "In a Priest Driven Ambulance". My feeling may change with time but regardless, I will continue to enjoy this great album.

I've no complaints with the music here, a return to the scuzzy, shambling psychedelia once typical of the Flaming Lips before the more conventionally melodic run of albums that began with 'Clouds taste metallic'. I loved 'Clouds...', 'The Soft Bulletin' and 'Yoshimi....', but found the 'At War With The Mystics' to be a bit limp and half-hearted in parts. By returning to the less commercial, freer music of their earlier albums the band seem reinvigorated, but they haven't lost their way with a good melody either, and this is a great fun album to listen to.Or it would be if it wasn't for the horrible mastering, which somehow makes this album a chore to listen for more than a few songs at a time. I'm not talking about loudness or distortion here (I'm a big fan of both), I'm talking about the combination of overcompressed mastering and the digital waveform carrier (CD or mp3). Even with the sound turned down, this combination really hurts my ears. Of course this is a personal thing, and maybe I'm psycho-acoustically abnormal, but for me this is a real problem. To be clear about the kind of aural unpleasantness I'm talking about, the best analogy I can think of is the sound of a CD skipping on a pub jukebox turned up loud. Ouch.Happily, there is a solution to this problem - buy the vinyl. Having compared the two formats, I'm glad to report that the vinyl edition sounds just fine. Why this should be I'm not entirely sure - presumably the vinyl is cut from the same digital master - but the effect is undeniable. Perhaps the physical limitations of the vinyl groove mean that the compression has to be turned down for a playable transfer? Anyway, I'd strongly recommend buying this on vinyl, which comes with a free CD anyway, so you can compare for yourself.

Having become almost superstars, the new Flaming Lips album will probably turn off many people. Old fans, especially those (like me) who were introduced to the weird universe of the Lips through their most commercial album, Yoshimi...., will probably wonder what on earth is going on here. Also, it is probably too harsh for newbies, who will probably be turned off by its distinct lack of anything commercial.But stick with it, and after a few listens the tunes and themes start to make themselves heard above the noise. I was also lucky enough to see the band live, and the songs they picked from Embryonic tended to make more sense in that setting. Although definitely no classic in the Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi... mode, this certainly is a better album than a first listen would suggest.

As described and on time

Having come to the Flaming Lips by the way of Yoshimi which I absolutely loved then the Soft Bulletin like other reviewers I found that At war with the Mystics was disappointing but Embryonic is a real return to form and I have to disagree with others that there is not a duff song on this superb album, you cant just pick song out to listen to you have to let the album just wash over you and take you on a journey, I play it on repeat, mmmm here we go again.......