THE FLAMING LIPS
Released January 13, 2017
NEW 2017 MUSIC: What a long, strange trip it has been for The Flaming Lips and for all those who have chosen to accompany them upon their fully idiosyncratic musical odyssey of their 34 year history. I joined the parade around the time of "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" (released July 16, 2002) and with that album plus their breakthrough "The Soft Bulletin" (released June 22, 1999) and the subsequent "At War With The Mystics" (released April 4, 2006), I completely fell in love with the band's trilogy of albums that blended the silly and the philosophical, the gravity and the interstellar, the acoustic and electronic with band leader Wayne Coyne's plaintive Neil Young styled lead vocals sitting warmly at the core of the band's highly distinctive musical universe.
Since those three albums in particular, The Flaming Lips have consistently challenged my senses and sensibilities with releases that became defiantly abrasive like the disturbing and very loud "Embryonic" (released October 13, 2009), the dark night of the soul in "The Terror" (released April 1, 2013), the album length EP "Peace Sword" (released October 29, 2013) and even the side project of Electric Wurms. I drew the line with their collaboration with Miley Cyrus as I just could not bring myself to even try and figure out what the purpose of that collaboration was even about,
Now, four years after their last official releases, The Flaming Lips have made their grand return with their 14th album, "Oczy Mlody," a work that supplies us with the band's most melodic work in some time while also being deceptively lighter than air. I do have to say that for what may possibly be the first time, The Flaming Lips have released an album that just hasn't grabbed me in the same ways that albums in the past have accomplished. This is not to say that "Oczy Mlody" is a weak effort. In fact, I am actually wondering just what I might be missing, what I just might not be hearing quite as well this time around--and I think my difficulty with fully latching on might be within the execution rather than the writings.
Entitled from a Polish translation and containing song titles that are named more for their sound than for any actual meaning ("Nidgy Nie," anyone?), the proceedings can often feel to be more than a little twee. And in some ways, and despite some of the music's more symphonic touches, "Oczy Mlody" feels like The Flaming Lips' quietest work, an album's worth of twinkly synthetic lullabies about purple eyed unicorns, castles, wizards, sunrises and galaxies yet filtered through some more darkly sinister themes of day-glo strippers, demon eyes that have seen death in the summertime, and free drugs that cause highs so encompassing that they have the potential to bring on the end of the world and usher in a love revolution from the ashes. Goodness!
It is all a little silly but again, the band's trademark existential melancholia is abound throughout the album, thus giving the music a little gravity that the actual musicianship did not this time around...maybe. At this time, the personnel for The Flaming Lips is seven men strong but the album really sounds as if the only band members present are Coyne and multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd on an arsenal of keyboards, synthesizers and primitive drum machines, making for songs that feel like elaborate demos rather than fully fleshed out material.
But maybe, there is a method to this approach and I just need a little more time to find it.
ST. VINCENT
Released February 24, 2014
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
Released June 10, 2003
ERYKAH BADU
Released March 30, 2010
FOXYGEN
Released January 20, 2017
NEW 2017 MUSIC: I just do not quite get this band...and I mean that in a good way.
Foxygen, the music duo of singers/songwriters, producers and multi-instrumentalists Sam France and Jonathan Rado have intrigued me for quite some time as their sound openly references past musical eras while wildly turning them inside out, even references that already exist upon the outer fringes.
Take their previous effort, the double album "...And Star Power" (released October 14, 2014), clearly and heavily influenced by Todd Rundgren's post-psychedelic head trip, audio kaleidoscope masterpiece "A Wizard, A True Star" (released March 2, 1973). This was an album that possessed a smattering of stunning, gorgeous pop songs and utopian epics but surrounding them were what felt to be the most outre sonic experiments that existed somewhere between the lowest fidelity lo-fi indie rock and Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" (released July 1975). It was an album that certainly was ore than a bit of a mess and to this day, I am just not sure what to eve make of it. But...they certainly captured my attention.
Three years later, Foxygen has returned with "Hang," another release that references the past while blazing its own path into the future, this time with eight songs, beautifully composed and exquisitely produced and performed, with aid from The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd and The Lemon Twigs as their rhythm section--more on them shortly--and to greater sonic effect, a 40 piece orchestra! This time around, France and Rado have emerged with songs that inexplicably blend Philadelphia soul, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley jazz, Zappa-esque complexities fueled by Gershwin-esque sweep (or vice versa) plus even more--sometimes all in the same song--and fronted by France's often bizarre vocals which somehow recall 1973 era Bryan Ferry on a seriously dangerous bender. In fact, the album kinda sounds like Van Dyke Parks compositions as performed by the original glam rock excess of Roxy Music, a combination that may make you wonder if the w hole enterprise is an elaborate joke of some sort.
But it would be hard for me to think of music this intricately composed and performed being used as nothing ore than as a lark. And even so, France's over emphatic vocal stylings suggest that he just maybe singing in character--perhaps that aforementioned drunk as hell Ferry-esque persona singing in some far away orchestra hall fronting this powerful band. Who knows?
But, I do have to say, that Foxygen's "Hang" definitely has the goods to keep your ears listening and guessing.
THE LEMON TWIGS
Released October 14, 2016
2016 REWIND: WXRT's Lara Mondae led me here and to that, i send her eternal thanks!
Last year, if I had heard "Do Hollywood," the debut album from The Lemon Twigs, the collective of teenaged (!) brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario as singers, songwriters,producers and multi-instrumentalists, it would have sailed easily into being one of my favorite albums of 2016!!
This album is absolutely stunning and it gave my brand of synesthesia a wonderful workout due to the boys' splendid agility with melodies, harmonies and overall songcraft, musicianship and production. While The Beatles and Foxygen (from whom Jonathan Rado serves as the album's producer) are clear influences, my musical ears were often tricked into thinking I was listening to a lost album from 10cc, as The Lemon Twigs' superior melodic gifts found seemingly endless varieties of turning notes and chords upon their respective heads, making me hear pop songcraft in excitingly new ways.
I am certain for some of you, the rapidly abrupt musical, tempo, time signature and stylistic changes that occur throughout the album may make you wonder if "Do Hollywood" suffers from a certain schizophrenia. While the album does not suffer from any lack of musical ideas in the least, I have to admit that there were points where I was curious if the band could ever sustain an idea. By the time the album reached selections like "Baby, Baby" and the glorious, glistening ballad "How Lucky Am I?" The Lemon Twigs succeeded with tremendous aplomb. And for that matter, during my frequent subsequent listenings, the songs have continued to reveal themselves, demonstrating how richly all of the seemingly disparate elements merge together.
There is something to be said with this particular "everything but the kitchen sink" songwriting and performance as it completely suggests the youthful exuberance of the band plus a certain heartfelt urgency, as if this might be the only album they ever make so they'd better get EVERYTHING on it.
But, based upon "Do Hollywood," I have a strong feeling that The Lemon Twigs have set themselves up for a most lengthy career.
"WE GOT IT FROM HERE...THANK YOU 4 YOUR SERVICE"
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
Released November 11, 2016
Released 1982
"MALIBU"
ANDERSON.PAAK
Released January 15, 2016
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