Early reports on Embryonic had me a bit worried. An interview in Spring of ‘09 with frontman Wayne Coyne, gave early indication that the Flaming Lips’ new album would be a sprawling and unfocused double album. The idea of the band continuing to steer away from the polished psychedelic pop sounds that made me such a big fan a decade ago was just a disappointing realization. After hearing the sobering report and knowing that this album would be following up the jumbled mess that was At War With The Mystics, my expectations for the Lips’ 12th full length were low. When I finally took the time to listen to the Flaming Lips’ stretching 18 song LP, my worries were put to rest. Though sprawling and free-for-all may be good words to describe Embryonic, unfocused is not. The album is an epic and cohesive masterwork that strays miles away from the Lips’ last three albums and yet finds a way to stay familiar. It’s an album that revels in noisy atmospherics and adventurous improvisational paths. What I'm trying to say is that Embryonic is one of the Flaming Lips’ finest efforts.
Any album containing 18 songs can seem a bit overloaded, but somehow this one feels like a steady and rewarding climb to the top of a mammoth summit. You wade through the beautiful shimmering melodies one moment and then run headlong into screeching noise and experimental jams the next. The climb only gets stranger as you go on and realize that the comfortable sounds on the record that you may be familiar with, are standing on shaky ground at best. You never know when the otherworldly sounds of unrecognizable instruments will leave you hanging on for dear life. There are very few moments that you could describe as steady footing on Embryonic; and despite my affection for their more pop oriented sound, this album is all the better for the stunning direction that it took. After having scaled the summit, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
My most apt description for this album, based on my admiration for jazz music, is free jazz. Sure this is a rock album first and foremost, but jazz fusion and free jazz are obviously direct influences on the experimental progressive directions of many of the album’s cuts. Coyne himself described Miles Davis (assumedly in his Bitches Brew rock star phase) as a big influence on the record, and it undoubtedly shows. Songs like the keyboard laced “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine” and the jam oriented “Powerless,” lie soaking in the distortion filled aura of free-form jazz. It is music that fans of past albums may have a harder time wrapping their heads around than I have, but there’s no denying the epic tone of the album or the underlying layered quality, even if there aren’t choruses with pop hooks.
Many people will point to the most annoying song on Embryonic as the pop song hidden amongst all the noise. “I Can Be A Frog” is an out of place excuse to put a somewhat marketable song on the album. At least that’s what it seems like to me. The vocal contribution by Karen O is even said to have been recorded over a telephone conversation. Everyone’s favorite synth-pop group MGMT even helps out on the memorable “Worm Mountain.” The highlight of the entire album though, the towering “Silver Trembling Hands,” is a good combination of the pop sensibility that the Flaming Lips so obviously possess and the experimental spirit that they so readily display on the album. With a climbing bass line and a steady drum beat, the analogy of climbing a mountain never seemed more appropriate.
It’s already been stated numerous times that a rock band forging into their 3rd decade of existence shouldn’t be making an album like Embryonic. It’s just common knowledge that 50 year old men shouldn’t be writing and recording music that is this experimental, this daring and this gutsy. If there was any indication within the past few years that the Lips were slowing down, or losing touch, this album proves otherwise. After returning from my trip up the mountain, I can safely say that Embryonic is a summit worth scaling.
