The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody

Flaming Lips are a band that for the most part I've always been a little confused on just how big of a fan base they have.  Sure I've enjoyed albums from them here and there, and their live shows are pretty extraordinary, but people practically worship The Flaming Lips.  Not only that, I has absolutely no Idea they've been around as long as they have! Flaming Lips made their debut all the way back in 1986 with "Hear It Is".  The music on Flaming Lips early records was much noisier and much more "alternative" sounding.  This was kinda hit and miss for the Flaming Lips, there were some great tracks and all like "Trans Brains and Rain", but at the same time, God did Flaming Lips ever sound like every other college band in 86/87.  The material here wasn't necessarily terrible, but it certainly didn't grab me.  "Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips" wasn't that much more interesting.  Here, The Flaming Lips started to get some better production going.  From the cover art, to the extended jams, to the Beatles samples, Flaming Lips were slowly starting to craft their Neo-Psychedelic sound, I just seriously don't think it sounded that nice still, and Flaming Lips STILL to me sounded like a total rip off of so much else going on at the time.  "Telepathic Surgery" did show a little improvement for Flaming Lips however.  While the band still was heavily basing their sound on every other noise rock band, they were at least making some broader instrumentals and becoming more fearless.  There were plenty of moments on there that I seriously enjoyed, like "Chrome Plated Suicide", but there were also PLENTY of tracks that were a serious waste of time like "U.F.O Story".  When it comes to 1990's "In A Priest Driven Ambulance" however, really started to change my thoughts on the band.  Wayne Coyne's performance on there started to get much wilder and more explosive, and the instrumentals continued to get bigger and bigger, stranger too.   The 90's saw Flaming Lips getting bigger by the second, much noisier too.  "Hit To Death in The Future Head" saw The Flaming Lips sounding bigger and bolder than ever, which worked as a huge plus and minus for them.  We saw HUGE sounding tracks like "The Sun" work out wonderfully, with other moments like "Hit Me Like You Did The First Time" just become noisy messes right in front of us.  But this album was HUGE for The Flaming Lips, as it saw them slowly but surely begin leaning towards a much more psychedelic sound, one that they would originally nail perfectly for "The Soft Bulletin".  "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart" on the other hand, and this may be a highly unpopular opinion, was a HUGE step back for The Flaming Lips.  Here, they resorted back to their more bland Post-Punk/Noise Rock days in the worst way, everything felt so less colorful and interesting.  On "Clouds Taste Metallic" at least, Flaming Lips got more psychedelic then ever, and were going for more of a Psych-Pop sound that they would eventually define.  Speaking of definitive Psych Pop, up next The Flaming Lips would release "The Soft Bulletin", a breathtaking, ambitious neo-psychedelic masterpiece.  The production of "The Soft Bulletin" is stunning, and the band seem to be at their most unified.  It's an album that anyone can enjoy, Flaming Lips fan or not.  After that though, The Flaming Lips for my taste went right back to being on the inconsitant side.  I understand what people LOVED about "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots".  Tracks on there like "Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell" and "It's Summertime" were fantastic, but too many of the other tracks to me just didn't stick with me at all.  And can we all just forget about "At War With The Mystics", that album is seriously one of the most cringeworthy album's I've ever heard.  "Embryonic" I can take or leave, I certainly don't mind it, but I also have trouble really singling out tracks that I go crazy for.  Then, in true Flaming Lips fashion, they came out of nowhere and blew my mind with "The Terror".  This was certainly the polar opposite of other Flaming Lips records, but that's what I loved about it.  They used their gigantic wall of sound to go for a much darker, drone focused, ambient piece that was absolutely stunning.  I loved every minute of it to be honest.  What's that?  My thoughts on their collaborative album with Miley Cyrus?  Please don't make me think about that.  So all of that being said, I really never know when I'm seriously going to enjoy a Flaming Lips project.  The singles leading up to this album have been just OK, while I really dig some of the production they're going with, Wayne Coyne's vocals are just passable.  So let's talk about this new album shall we!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtd2ceS_l1o

One of my favorite tracks here, “Nigdy Nie (Never No)” actually has a little oomph to it, and it’s on the lighter side of the mood here.  On their last album, “The Terror”, The Flaming Lips took a headfirst dive into darkness and it worked, but for a lot of “Oczy Mlody” it really just sounds like they’re lost.  There’s an unexpected groove to “Nigdy Nie (Never No)”, and for once here the synths are being completely jammed down our throats.  This also may just be the most psychedelic thing here for all you old school fans of The Flaming Lips.  There are barely any vocals throughout this one, but to be honest I don’t think thats a bad thing at all.  It’s actually a really nice break from everything else thats been going on.  Not to mention, when things do end up picking up here, there’s a nice funky little section that I can’t get enough of.  See, “Oczy Mlody” isn’t a TOTAL train wreck.  Up next is “Galaxy I Sink”, and let me just say while I have an issue with a lot of this album I do certainly enjoy a lot of the production here.  Now that that’s out in the open, “Galaxy I Sink” takes a gigantic turn for the weird.  Wayne Coyne’s dreary delivery is back, which I usually don’t mind THAT much.  Ugh, but everything here is just so damn boring and uneventful.  The instrumentals don’t help this track either, even when more live instrumentation comes in it’s all so bland.  I’ve literally heard more energetic lullabies.  Sure, the last minute or so is actually quite beautiful with it’s string arrangements, but it’s far too late to save this one.  On the next track, “One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill”, everything that they’ve been desperately clambering for as far as an atmosphere goes works well.  This is easily the murkiest sounding track yet, with bizarre jungle-like sound effects that actually really come off rather nicely.  Far from a snoozefest, this track actually has a really great groove that dominates throughout, not to mention this track is ominous as hell.  The synths here don’t come off awkward, they end up adding very nicely to the atmosphere, even Wayne Coyne sounds like himself.  There’s also this fantastic sense of paranoia here, as if something just went horribly wrong on whatever planet this is supposed to be taking place on.  Wayne Coyne’s imagery matched up with the absolutely sinister synths that come in later in the track make for a pretty ridiculous sound, why couldn’t there have been more of this?  But for every track like “One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill”, there’s a track like “Do Glowy”.  Instantly, I feel like The Flaming Lips literally take everything they just did and threw it right out the window.  The atmosphere here is much more gimmicky and much harder to swallow.  Wayne Coyne actually sounds pretty amazing here, but lyrically this has to be a joke.  I honestly have no idea how anybody thought this was even semi-passable.  The synths that gurgle through most of the track are ugly as sin and a poor attempt at creating an atmosphere.  And that’s really it, this is the furthest thing from a “good” song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv1ORPEj544

Up next is the 8 minute long “Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes “.  It actually starts off really nicely here as far as the atmosphere goes.  I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily what I’m looking for, but it’s certainly pleasant, and we see them going back to these nature sort of sound effects which worked for them earlier.  Outside of that though, there’s virtually nothing going on.  For the rest of “Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes” I’m sitting there begging for things to pick up a little.  Wayne Coyne’s performance here isn’t that bad, thankfully there’s some layering on his vocals that spice things up a bit.  However, I feel like for the rest of the track whenever I think something is GOING to happen, nothing happens and I’m forced to sit there and just enjoy the sort of atmosphere. This ends up being a toss-away, 8 minutes of one at that.  I think what’s most frustrating about this album is how nice SOME of the material is here.   But in a case like “Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes”, I had to sit through 6 minutes of bland instrumentals just to get to 2 minutes of nice orchestrations.  And that’s just frustrating.  Thankfully, on “The Castle” The Flaming Lips at the very least sound like themselves.  This doesn’t sound like anything is forced, or that they’re going for a certain sound, they literally just sound like The Flaming Lips.  That's great and all, but did it really take 10 tracks to get to this point?  This is easily the most blissful track here, hell it sounds like it could have easily landed on one of their early 2000’s or late 90’s albums.  I mean obviously this doesn’t sound as groundbreaking, but I certainly think this is an alright single.  Up until now, this album has sort of come off like a Wayne Coyne solo project, with the rest of The Flaming Lips falling back a little.  On “The Castle” though, The Flaming Lips actually sound like a unit.  As far as a “classic” Flaming Lips sound, you’re not going to get anything close than this.  "Almost Home (Blisko Domu)” is also pretty promising right from the start.  I didn’t think the Flaming Lips could pull off such an upbeat electronic sound and make it sound this good, it almost sounds like a watered down track from Radiohead’s “Kid A”.   Wayne Coyne’s vocals here sound so distant and pained, this is by far the most emotion we’ve heard here from anything.  Even the instrumentals to this one are absolutely stunning.  The last two minutes turn a little sour to be honest, but overall this is simply just a fantastic tune.  Oh God do I have to talk about the finale?  The one with Miley Cyrus who just HAD to show up?  Fine.  “We A Family” is the finale we’re dealt with here.  The intro to this one quite frankly is one of the uglier tracks on here.  The problem with the instrumental here is once again the electronic passages.  When The Flaming Lips throughout “Oczy Mlody” go for a more subtle electronic sound, it works.  But here, ugh they’re literally stuffing it down our throats.   As far as the backing vocals go, man are they ever obnoxious.  Coyne’s performance is alright, if you’re a fan of his usual delivery you’ll be fine with this.  But probably my biggest issue with this track is the production.  Everything here is just so heavy, but I honestly feel like that wasn’t done on purpose.  All of a sudden, everything on “We A Family” goes from passable to downright obnoxious.  Miley can obviously perform and sing and all, but she and The Flaming Lips have absolutely no chemistry and I’d be shocked if they ever did.  Overall, there are some good tracks on “Oczy Mlody”, but overall it’s not one of The Flaming Lips shining moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiGk8NXC_d8

Rating 6.4/10

Give A Listen To: “How??”, "Nigdy Nie (Never No)", "Almost Home (Blisko Domu)", "The Castle"

Overall Thoughts: Ugh.  I've been picky with Flaming Lips albums in the past and I'm just as picky with this one here.  I like a lot of elements to "Oczy mlody", like the production and a lot of the atmosphere when it isn't being crammed into our brains.  Outside of that, there's a lot of messy moments here.  A lot of the performances are bland, and the rest of the Flaming Lips outside of Wayne Coyne most of the time don't really even come across as present.  It's more or less a boring, dystopian Wayne Coyne solo album.  If that's something you're into, give it a shot.