The Flaming Lips

“At War With the Mystics” (Warner Bros)

Sounds like: Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, Radiohead

REVIEW: 3 / 5

In short: This album may turn off classic Lips fans with its gnarly production, but it will likely turn on just as many new fans.

After thoroughly enjoying the last two Flaming Lips albums, I unwrapped “At War With the Mystics” with much anticipation. The album is the trio’s 11th release and first new release in more than four years.

The album’s art is amazing, following the same color scheme and overall weirdness of past albums.

After a first listen, it was quickly apparent that the Lips have gotten to the point in their career where anything goes. First track and first single “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” has lots of repeated riffs and vocals, including high pitched munchkin-sounding “yeah yeah yeahs.”

The song set the tone for the album, relying on sound effects and production techiques and skimping a bit on lyrical content and creativity.

The overall album is polished with the band’s signature blend of clarity and modulation, including wild and uber-compressed sounds and a lovable – but quirky – sense of overall strangeness.

The songs are slightly less tuneful than previous efforts, relying more on riffs than melodies and taking a simplistic approach to lyrics.

Originally thumbed as a “political” record, “Mystics” sounds like it deals more with mental thoughts and problems than real-world politics.

After multiple listens, repeated phrases and initially annoying riffs and effects become more enjoyable. Although far from the best Lips record yet, Mystics is still solid.

– Dan McClanahan