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| | Embryonic | | | Music Artist : | | The Flaming Lips | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | WEA/Reprise | | Release Date : | | 2009-10-13 | | Store Price : | | $13.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $9.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Convinced Of The Hex
2. The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine
3. Evil
4. Aquarius Sabotage
5. See The Leaves
6. If
7. Gemini Syringes
8. Your Bats
9. Powerless
10. The Ego's Last Stand
11. I Can Be A Frog
12. Sagittarius Silver Announcement
13. Worm Mountain
14. Scorpio Sword
15. The Impulse
16. Silver Trembling Hands
17. Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
18. Watching The Planets
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Fantastic Departure
Submitted on: 2009-11-17 |
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| The Flaming Lips have once again created a sonic masterpiece. Embryonic is a fantastic departure from recent albums. The Lips have reinvented themselves again! Great work guys. |
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Amazing new record
Submitted on: 2009-11-15 |
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I have to confess that when I read Wayne Coyne's recent tirade against other musicians I thought it mean the official end of the Flaming Lips as we knew them. It is no news that when an artist has nothing else to offer they begin badmouthing other people's work and attracting attention for the wrong reasons. I also have to confess that I was more than relieved when I heard the advance tracks from Embryonic and even jumped on one foot when I listened to the entire thing for the first time.
This record finds the Flips more strange, more tripped out, and more voracious to grasp the world and give back the joy of it all with each listen. The ineluctable out-of-focus approach already mentioned in interviews preceding its release helps to make this their best work to date in all its complexity, sparseness and variety. They have mixed their musical influences (namely, The Beatles, Zeppelin and Miles Davis) with the convulsive baggage of material from their most recent album to create a masterpiece.
Convinced of the hex gives a mere glimpse into what is about to unravel. The sparrow looks up at the machine defines the galloping mood of the first half (nine tracks), while Evil is a mesmerizing story on being haunted by evil that coincidentally reminisces of The soft bulletin.
Speaking with Billboard in May Coyne noted that the idea of making a double album has allowed them to "weave a couple of themes into there and ...sort of sprawl a little bit". Later he concedes that "with this (record) there was an element of accidentally stumbling upon more spontaneous sort of freak-out stuff", like having some freak-out jam session at Steven Drodz's place that would constitute the bedrock for some of the overdubs and lyrics.
The second half of the album is more subdued yet the guitars are more furious and the vocals melt into an ethereal background that accompanies music more than guides it. The bulk of guest appearances makes its presence, with Karen O giving life to animals on the quirky I can be a frog, MGMT joining in voice and shakers in Worm Mountain, and mathematician Thorsten Wörmann providing vocals in Virgo Self-esteem broadcast. But it also gives a taste of free form jamming build around astrological signs with Scorpio sword, that is plain delectable if brief.
Embryonic is a homage to weirdness, to the excess that only The Flaming Lips can make a hit out of. They succeeded in making the ridiculous sound sensible, in making the alien sound familiar, in making the unimaginable tangible.
Twelve albums and sixteen years into their musical career they still sound as crazy and deranged as when they first played those acid-induced punk songs. They relish on tearing down the pop friendliness of their previous two albums (thankfully) and coming back determined to mess around with our ears and our minds. It is not a complete upturn in their offer if we check their back catalog, rather a magistral bet for the inner freak that has fueled their relentless appetite for the outer new. |
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 Do You Realize It's NOT the W.A.N.D???
Submitted on: 2009-11-12 |
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| Too heavy, too hard... Yes it may harken back to what made them famous in the first place, but the Lips' evolution to great melodic tunes in recent years is what sold me personally. I was not and never have been a fan of their earlier works. This album regresses to those sounds, so it's not on my wish list... Will hope for a calmer, more hummable affair next time around. |
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 Another Lesson in Experimentation
Submitted on: 2009-11-09 |
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The Flaming Lips have had one of the most dramatic evolutions of any band in history. From their punk inspired debut, Hear It Is, in 1986 to the sonically experimental Transmissions from the Satellite Heart in 1993, to their duo of albums finding harmony in complexity: The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, to their chaotic overture that is Embryonic, The Flaming Lips have constantly manipulated and molded their sound through a series of musical risks no other mainstream artist has attempted.
It should be noted that this album was designed to be heard in its DVD format which has 256 times the resolution of a standard CD. While casual listeners may not hear many differences, it is the true subtleties found in The Flaming Lips' expansive use of dynamic range that makes this release truly incredible.
Unlike the majority of The Flaming Lips releases, Embryonic lacks a true single. "I Can Be a Frog," featuring Karen O, is as close as the band comes to a radio friendly hit and while the beautifully simplistic video that accompanies the song will most likely be the most watched Flaming Lips video on the internet, it is unlikely to earn the kind of radio play "Do You Realize" and "She Don't Use Jelly" continue to receive.
Karen O is not the only collaboration on this record. The Flaming Lips also team up with the overnight success MGMT for the track "Worm Mountain." Although MGMT can be heard backing up Wayne Coyne on vocals, it is almost comical listening to the track for any other MGMT influences. MGMT is no stranger to musical manipulation, but it seems as though they may have struggled to keep up with the futuristic thinking Flaming Lips.
Embryonic is a must own for current fans of The Flaming Lips, but for listeners new to the band, instrumentals like "Scorpio Sword" may prove to be too much to grasp. Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions received little appreciation until well after his death. Perhaps, like Bach, The Flaming Lips are just well before their time.
Similar Artists: Radiohead, Beck
Track Suggestion: I Can Be a Frog |
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 What are they thinking?
Submitted on: 2009-11-09 |
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| This album is about as bad as listening to a cow giving birth. What were they thinking in returning to the sound that almost cost them their record contract before they put out "The Soft Bulletin"? Do not waste your money! |
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