11/14/2022 0 Comments Lyrics bad days the flaming lips![]() If that vibe isn't appealing to you, or if you have a problem with the notion of sitting through Wayne's high-pitched vocals that are sort of a cross between Neil Young and late-period Jon Anderson, the band probably isn't for you. (though, again, the band has broken from that plenty, and has had success in doing so). Sometimes it's happier than that, sometimes it's darker than that, and sometimes it's tough to make it out through the haze of pot that went into the making of the given song, but that's roughly the go-to vibe for Wayne and co. If there's such a thing as a quintessential lyrical mood for a Flaming Lips song (not all songs follow this, but a lot of them do), it's a kind of bittersweet guarded optimism along the lines of "Gee whiz, it sure is difficult out there in the world, but it's sure great to be alive" or thereabouts. While the instrumentation and approach of the band changed plenty over the years, though, the emotional core has remained pretty stable, courtesy of Wayne Coyne, the vocalist/visionary/main songwriter for most of the band's history (except for that weird period right near the beginning and the era from Bulletin onward where Steven Drozd became an important contributor and every bit the creative engine as Wayne Coyne). Personally, as mentioned, I lean heavily towards the mid-period and only slightly less to the late-period, but I can totally see where somebody would have jumped ship when Zaireeka and The Soft Bulletin came out while loving the indie-rock stuff. The end result of this is that it would be an interesting case indeed for somebody to love every era of the band somebody who loves the earliest stuff probably wouldn't love the late-period stuff (and vice verse), and if somebody somehow likes both of those eras, it's possible that they might consider the mid-period stuff a little too white-bread for their tastes. But they also developed a love for presenting their music in weird forms (like an album that ideally requires 4 stereos playing at once, or an EP packaged inside a giant gummy skull), and for synthesizers, and for music that makes no apologies for emulating art rock and kraut rock bands from years ago, and for smooshing sound and music together in interesting ways reminiscient of Pink Floyd and others (especially on Embryonic). They also really liked guitar noise (though this mostly subsided after Clouds Taste Metallic), which helped their "credibility" with their indie-rock fanbase even after the band begged its way onto a major label. They clearly love 60s and 70s rock, not only the big names but also the kinds of music that made it onto the Nuggets and Nuggets 2 boxsets, and while the manifestations of this love changed over time, it's never been hard to feel that influence in their music. The big thing about The Flaming Lips is that commercial success is something they've sought the catch is that they've sought it on their own terms, and their own terms are a bizarre mix of traditionalism and futurism that won't necessarily satisfy fans of either. They're not exactly embraced by everybody outside of the mainstream either, though: ultimately, the band (for most of its life) has been making pop music, and what's so exciting about pop music if you, as a listener, have "graduated" onto more exotic things? The band isn't exactly obscure, and they've had some attempts to push themselves more into the mainstream than they've been, but their main impact on the pop culture world at large was basically limited to (a) a bizarre appearance on 90210 where they played "She Don't Use Jelly," (b) "Bad Days" getting used in Batman Forever and (c) "Do You Realize?" getting voted the official rock song of Oklahoma (their home state). One thing that's clear to me, though, is that they tend to get a level of adulation from me and other amateur reviewers like me (not to mention from Pitchfork and other semi-mainstream reviewing organizations) that's disproportionate to the amount of love they get from people on the whole, and this is of interest to me. Their 80s work is fairly hit-and-miss for me, but their 90s albums entertain and interest me on the whole as well as anybody else's could from that era (not to mention that, starting with Zaireeka, they became a top-notch art rock band), and rating the band as highly as I do happens without any hesitation on my part. The Flaming Lips are a pretty bland choice to have as one of my favorite bands from the 90s and beyond, but I'm a pretty bland person, so they suit me just fine. "Yeah, So If It's Sad, Well, You Still Gotta Live Till You Die" The Flaming Lips Completely confused by the rating system? Go here for an explanation. ![]()
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