| Following on from their sprawling and excellent Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the Flaming Lips seem to have lightened up the mood with their new long-player At War With The Mystics. Despite the overtly political `anti-Bush' stance that runs through the album's lyrics, it's the music - upbeat, accessible - that will attract and startle Lip's fans most. Opening track, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is a fine example of the bands newly palatable schtick. It's an undeniably inventive song in terms of arrangements and mood but it lacks the band's signature excess, and opens the floodgates for a stream of similarly superficial songs that favour feelgood atmospherics over anything truly transcendental. It's not that the songs are bad; most of them are very, very good. But the Prince-like funk soundtrack that backs "Free Radicals", for example, is a far cry from prior material like "Chrome Plated Suicide" etc., which made their reputation as a band to be reckoned with. Some may love this new pop-lite direction, but just as many may well find it disappointing. --Paul Sullivan |
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