If I had to just throw out some words to describe the new Flaming Lips album, a plethora of adjectives could fit the bill: Dark. Mysterious. Edgy. Conceptual. Inaccessible, some might argue. But a word that I would certainly never use would be "radio-friendly," as Embryonic seems to try as hard as it can to be anything but. Not only does Embryonic lack even one tune that could feasibly work as a single, but the whole album also feels like one extended hour-long song that features a lot of distortions and sound effects.
Still, Embryonic isn't necessarily bad. But it is not an album that will convert a casual music listener into a Flaming Lips fan. To appreciate it, you must already understand and enjoy the band's earlier work, and not just its 2002 mainstream breakthrough Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Unlike that album, Embryonic features no memorable choruses or toe-tapping melodies - which seems to be exactly the aesthetic the group wants for this effort.
The Lips were never known for turning out hit singles, so Embryonic isn't a complete digression - it's more of a regression. The album definitely shows the band coming full circle throughout its 20-plus years and ultimately settling on its earlier sound. The dark lyrics and creepy, discombobulated sounds echo strongly of its pre-Yoshimi work, such as the 1997 album Zaireeka. So while Embryonic probably won't earn the band a lot of attention from MTV, early fans will be ecstatic at the band's return to a previous style, especially because they do it better this time around.
Indeed, in regards to instrumentation and overall sound, the band has never sounded better. While it is experimental and heavy on the studio effects and distortions, the music shows vision. Granted, there aren't more than two or three tracks that follow any typical song structure, but some of the album's best moments are those that push boundaries: Check out the slow, steady build of "See the Leaves," or the ominous bass line that leads into Kliph Scurlock's manic drumming on "The Ego's Last Stand."
But sadly the album's lyrics fall flat. Though verse has never been the band's strong point, I would challenge even the most dedicated fans to relate to these lyrics. The subject matter isn't radically different from that of previous albums: Questions about free will and man's true nature crop up repeatedly. The lyrics have gotten darker, edgier and more pessimistic than ever before, but the songs simply don't say anything coherent. We get fragments of an overall message for the album ("See the Leaves" meditates on death and regeneration and "Evil" muses, "Those people are evil / And they'll hurt you if they can / I never understand"), but only to have that message blatantly contradicted later on - "If" opens with "People are evil it's true / But on the other side / They can be gentle too / If they decide." The Lips never reconcile these conflicts to present a clear message for the album.
For years, Flaming Lips fans have been increasingly dissatisfied with the band's transition from underground to mainstream. It was understandably difficult for fans to hear "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)" in a Kraft salad dressing commercial. But I have no doubt that hardcore fans will be pleased with the band's return to the edginess and experimentation of its earlier work - and I am also 100 percent confident that the Kraft corporation will not be interested in using any of these tracks. Thank God.
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