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| | Embryonic (2 CD/1 DVD) | | | Music Artist : | | The Flaming Lips | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | WEA/Reprise | | Release Date : | | 2009-10-13 | | Store Price : | | $26.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $26.98 | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Convinced of the Hex
2. 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
Disc 21. Ego's Last Stand
2. I Can Be a Frog
3. Sagittarius Silver Announcement
4. Worm Mountain
5. Scorpio Sword [Instrumental]
6. Impulse
7. Silver Trembling Hands
8. Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast [Instrumental]
9. Watching the Planets
Disc 31. Convinced of the Hex [DVD][*]
2. Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine [DVD][*]
3. Evil [DVD][*]
4. Aquarius Sabotage [DVD][*]
5. See the Leaves [DVD][*]
6. If [DVD][*]
7. Gemini Syringes [DVD][*]
8. Your Bats [DVD][*]
9. Powerless [DVD][*]
10. Ego's Last Stand [DVD][*]
11. I Can Be a Frog [DVD][*]
12. Sagittarius Silver Announcement [DVD][*]
13. Worm Mountain [DVD][*]
14. Scorpio Sword [DVD][*]
15. Impulse [DVD][*]
16. Silver Trembling Hands [DVD][*]
17. Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast [DVD][*]
18. Watching the Planets [DVD][*]
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 genious genious genious
Submitted on: 2009-11-14 |
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noisy and trashy.
introspective and engulfing.
better and better with each listen.
my favorite of all time.
like nothing you've ever heard.
pure genious. |
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 The Rebirth of Psychedelia
Submitted on: 2009-10-28 |
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| The Flaming Lips have created a daring, uncompromizing, often brillaint opus that (from the reviews here) seems to have polarized their rabid fan base. There's not a whole lot of middle ground, people either love it or hate it. I'm firmly in the "love it" camp. I joined the Lips club on the Yoshimi album, and backtracked to The Soft Bulletin, and also have the Mystics record, so I'm not the long time fan who saw them in a basement in Oklahoma... and what's the deal with the reviewer who gave the album a great review and only 1 star ?....strange. Anyway I digress. THE ALBUM: this is not a sleek polished affair full of catchy, quirky songs. This is a dark, dense journey into the heart of what is great about Avante Garde music, full of throbbing, pulsing beats, dirty loud guitar noises and dirty loud drums as well. My only complaint is Wayne Coyne's cosmic vocals are often so effect laden, it's hard to discern the brillant lyrics lurking underneath. That's what we have the lyric sheet for, I guess. This album resists comparison at every turn. The Lips employ the studio as an instrument, coaxing both gentle and disturbing textures throughout this record. The opening track sets the pace for what is a thrill ride of an album. It really starts coming together on about the 4rth listen through. There's a lot of magic going on in these grooves, so I can't wait to get the vinyl in NOV. I'm sure it will sound even richer than the CD. This album can sit honorably among the great experiemental works of recent years like Radiohead's KID A, and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Those on the fence after reading the negative reviews should take the plunge and get into this album. Music should'nt always be nice and neat; it needs to jar our consciousness every now and then. |
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Oh Oh Oh... finding that there ain't no answer to find.
Submitted on: 2009-10-21 |
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| Forget everything you know... or everything you think you know... about the Flaming Lips and music in general. Put the album in and just let it play. Don't worry about the track numbers. Let it rumble, squeal and iminate through-out the corners of your home in surround-sound as you put the groceries away and sip wine. Then feel the sudden urge to write a review at some point on Amazon because it's so mind-boggling good. It's like an odd mutation of Flaming Lips records of the past; chrystalized and injected into the outer hemisphere of your brain; strange memories of sounds you once knew being plunged into the future of consciousness; where everything is everything and the Flaming Lips are doing the score. You will at once be entranced and yet somehow comforted by the warmth of familiarity; not unlike the slow synthesization of a ripening fetus with it's soul. Yes, you will eventually come back to terms with reality, but this album let's you take your time and figure things out at your own pace - sort of like life. By the album's end you will be craving more, committing yourself to multiple listens to crack the embryonic code. This does not exist because the flaming lips are clearly in tune with their chakras and are simply emitting positive bio-energies at all times when they create such musical brilliance. I don't think I have heard this kind of brave experimentalism that actually cohedes itself into something meaningful since Tricky's first three albums. Or in the Flaming Lips' case, since Zaireeka. The only bad thing about Zaireeka was that there were only eight songs. Embryonic is a double album! And the songs are tracked in their entirity on a single disc!! which means it only takes one CD or DVD player to hear an entire song!!! not four!!!! I guess surround sounds weren't as bountiful a commodity during the parking lot experiments. I am still waiting for Zaireeka in a DVD format so that I can hear the beautifully cryptic 'March of the Rotten Vegetables' at the click of a button. Those who call this album pretentious or masturbatory are the same people who wrote-off Zaireeka as too much of a hassle. This album is epic and timeless, and it will be here when you are ready for it. |
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Patience has MAJOR REWARDS here...
Submitted on: 2009-10-18 |
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The Lips rule my world...Wayne, Michael, Steven & Klyph are utter geniuses...I admit I was a tad worried about this record, being they took a sharp turn and went all experimental...but then I was like, WAIT, the Lips have ALWAYS been experimental and always want to take us disciples on an audio journey into the unknown, and blow our minds in unexpected ways...but this time, they wanted to go even further and do a double album, like how the Beatles did the "White Album", and just go with the sprawl and not edit themselves, just go with the flow, follow wherever the music took them...and like their prior opuses, this album is no different...expect the unexpected...you just have to check your expectations at the door and just follow pied piper Wayne wherever he and his cohorts take you...you may have you work a little harder to get into the music, but trust the Lips...they know what they're doing!!
And, oh man, does this ever pay off in the second half!! The first half has to grow on you (it reminds me a bit of Brooklyn band The Secret Machines, with Klyph's loud, in your face drums, combined with the Lips psychedelic tendencies) through the end of the first half in "Powerless" and start the second half...it's reward after reward...like walking through a desert and finding an oasis at the other side, or in the movie "Holes", where the kids are walking through hell and came across a mountain and garden filled with the sweetest most edible onions...it's among the most delightful music I've ever heard in the Lips' canon of work, such a joy to listen to and I feel like Karen O in "I Can Be A Frog", laughing and being goofy and making all sorts of funny animal noises...downright infectious!! Brooklyn band MGMT are awesome on "Worm Mountain"...I've always thought MGMT were very Lips-ish and they worked with Lips producer Dave Fridmann on their debut "Oracular Spectacular", so I'm not surprised their collabo is as delightful as it is. The final track, "Watching The Planets", could be a huge hit single...it's got great off-kilter hooks and it's extremely uplifting...pop this album on when you're feeling sad and gloomy, and "Embryonic", ending with this song will make you feel so much better, so happy you might land up crying tears of joy!!!
I treasure the Flaming Lips and I'm so happy that their unique brand of psychedelic, at times poppy, totally experimental, rock & roll music is such a part of my life...I will finally see them live in 2010, and this album could be their crowning achievement...it's a real sprawling journey with interesting stops along the way...you have to play it in order, and the 3 instrumental tracks are placed in key spots...you may have to work harder to get into it at first, but you will be so happy you did..."Convinced Of The Hex" is a cool song to open the album, and an interesting choice of a first single...the Lips are not a typical singles band...but if there's one song I would pick to get on radio, it would be the final track "Watching The Planets"...what an uplifting finale!!!!! Wow!!
And you have to get either of the deluxe editions, with the Hi-Res DVD...fur or no fur box...you really hear the album in it's glorious full scope...as the Lips need to be heard, on an album/audio journey that is "Embryonic"...again, the Flaming Lips RULE!!! |
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HIGH-ly recommended HIGH resolution
Submitted on: 2009-10-17 |
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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. |
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