Embryonic

Psych rock. After their abortion of a record, At War With The Mystics, and their never-ending stadium-sized, elaborate confetti-hamster bubble-yeti-spectacle of a tour, it was easy to write off the Lips as a feel-good novelty act or something. When Wayne Coyne started talking “double album” and “Miles Davis Bitches Brew period” and “freaking out in the woods,” I figured he was talking out of his ass again. But fuck. Embryonic is not predictable, hooky anthemic pop rock. Embryonic is sprawling, messy, bizarre, volatile; inspired even. The Lips have finally returned to their fucking weirdo, playfully experimental, structure-less, dense wall of sound, garage-acid-psych-kraut side after all these years. I know you won’t want to play this because it’s major label and all, and I still feel weird about it, but this is as good as they’ve ever been. What an unexpected treat. No FCCs.

*1. Messy, sprawling Krautrock rhythm, compressed, acid-drenched guitars, organs, glitchy, ringing, skittery guitar noodling, monotone, detached vocals. Great track. (3:57)
*2. Driving rhythm, more kraut-inspired bass and propulsive drums, guitar squeals and psychedelic organ line, shouty burts of energy, wah-guitar and lyrics about machines. (4:11)
*3. Ultraslow, pretty, introspective, melodic organ ballad with subtle backing vocals. Like something off Yoshimi. (5:38)
4. Loud, out-there explosion of harps, noise, angular guitars, and intense drumming then halfway through slows way down and is ambient. (2:10)
*5. More kraut-rock acid, droning organs, trippy, ripping guitars, awesome awesome. (4:24)
6. Very slow, mellow, warm high-pitched vocals, sparse. (2:05)
7. Instrumental. Bobbing bass, twinkling weird synths and organs, slow, interesting, weird samples, underwater space station? (3:41)
8. Spaced out, acid, slow-mo-kraut, strong chord progression, evolves into a great pop moment and slowly fades into 9. (2:35)
*9. Guitar noodling, slow, repetitive tribal rhythm and numbing bass, ringing guitars play around with rhythm, crunch, atmospheric, spaced out. (6:58)
*10. Second half (or 2nd LP) begins with bass-driven, spoken-sung glitch psych, cascading keyboards, explodes into another rampaging drum cycle and oddball psych pop. Just weird and interesting and great. (5:40)
11. This track is basically Karen O (heavily filtered) doing animal noises and Wayne riffing off of it. Music is a delicate circular melody. Weird, childish, lighthearted, and silly. (2:14)
12. Carries over from previous track; the bass, distant vocals, and spaced-out dramatic pop and backing vocals reminds me of Yoshimi. (2:59)
13. Unfortunately features the abominable hipsters, MGMT. Anyway, other than that, the song is pretty good driving space psych pop; horns, tambourine, guitar squeals. (5:22)
*14. Instrumental. Drifting, wandering acid-guitar psych noise, auto harp, start-stop messy drums, muddle of noise collides with warm orchestral strings. (2:02)
15. Another slow, warm, synthy, contemplative Yoshimi outtake with Peter Frampton talk box guitar. Take it or leave it. (3:30)
*16. Freak out! Driving, tribal snare and screaming, strange organs, dense howling and noodling in the background. Then it settles on a more normal pop refrain. Rinse, repeat. (3:59)
17. Another bizarre instrumental, carrying over from 16 with the rhythmic dagger guitars. (3:44)
*18. Knockout closer that features one of the best, twisted melodies Wayne has ever composed in front of a krautrock-acid-gaze blissful blend of swirling psych pop. (5:17)