| For so long, The Flaming Lips were indie-rock's Least Likely To's. For more than 10 years, these ever-shifting American psychedelists made some of the oddest records known to man or beast. And with 1993's Transmissions From The Satelite Heart they had their first hit. "She Don't Use Jelly", the hit in question, is accessible fuzz-guitar psyche-rock; indeed, by Flaming Lips standards, Transmissions... is comparatively normal. True, it still includes songs called "Oh My Pregnant Head (Labia In The Sunlight)" and "Pilotcan At The Queer Of God", but despite the ever-present perverse streaks, the glorious, celebratory crunch of "When Yer Twenty-Two" is the sound of The Flaming Lips finally embracing their listener. Transmissions From The Satellite Heart proved the detractors wrong--this is an album of incandescent loveliness and chemically-assisted good humour. --Louis Pattison |
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