Some records are really weird. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway? Yeah, that’s weird. The Life of Chris Gaines? Strange-o-la, though it’s more for what it was as a whole than anything on the record. We’re Only In It For the Money, or anything else by Frank Zappa? Off-the-charts weird. The key is to make it weird in a way that draws you in, not freaks you out; to make it intriguing enough to get people to wade through all the layers of psychosis, and hopefully find something worthwhile on the other side. Those two elements are essential to any exercise in weirdness: intrigue and substance. The Flaming Lips, who before have made some of the most hauntingly beautiful music ever, fail on both fronts with At War With the Mystics.
I know, I know, everyone and their brother has heard and loved “Do You Realize??” to the point where it’s incredibly cliché. But consider this; clichés are what they are because they’re usually true. “Do You Realize??” is one of the most marvelously gorgeous ballads of our time, and it shot the Flaming Lips from cult band to superstars at warp speed, 17 years into their career. But success like that brings the entire world anticipating your next effort with bated breath. Critics wet themselves over Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, as well as their previous album, The Soft Bulletin, as they no doubt will over At War With the Mystics. But here’s my question to them: does unique always equal good?
The obvious answer would be “no, it does not,” and that can be greatly seen on At War With the Mystics. The Flaming Lips have sort of become the spokesband for the anti-Bush movement, though exactly how they did is a subject of perplexity to me, and probably to them as well. That being said, the lead-off track, “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” can be read to be an anti-anti-Bush song, actually. The message of this song seems to be “sure, we have rotten leadership, but none of us could do any better had we all the power.” The next song, “Free Radicals,” can again be interpreted as dissing the political left, but that could be just my slightly conservative eyes interpreting it. The music is like disco done badly (which is actually better than disco done well, but that is neither here nor there), and clearly illustrates the weird-but-not-good thing.
The album, as a whole, is not as bouncy or optimistic as the opening tracks would have you believe. In general, it’s a pretty subdued and lackluster affair, but people will praise it just because it’s different. The fact that people comment just on how an artist says a thing, and not on what he actually says, I find to be pretty insulting to the artist. On the other hand, the Flaming Lips don’t really care what I think of their art, or what anyone else thinks, for that matter. If they did, they would not have continued with they 21-year career of absolute singularity in terms of what they were doing. I have to have a little respect for their chutzpah (the pure audacity of Zaireeka! simply blows my mind), but nothing says I have to like their music.
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Mr. Ambulance Driver
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