The Flaming Lips Return With 13th Studio Album Containing Bleak, Disturbing Music!
Warner Bros. Records releases the long-awaited 13th studio album by The Flaming Lips, "The Terror".
The album was produced by the band's long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips at Tarbox Road Studios. It is comprised of nine original compositions that reflect a darker-hued spectrum than previous works, along with a more inward-looking lyrical perspective than one might expect - but then again, maybe not. It's up to you, the listener, to decide what it means to you.
The Terror is a bold and expressive journey that has evolved over The Lips' nearly 30-year tended garden of sonic delights that ebbs and flows with extraordinary splashes of darkness and light, pleasure and pain, chaos and order. As we've come to know The Flaming Lips, the real beauty lies with the knowledge that to expect the unexpected is all part of the manic fun.
"Why would we make this music that is The Terror-- this bleak, disturbing record...??", Wayne Coyne writes in a press release. "I don't really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless... or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another?? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer... We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on... we just go on there is no mercy killing."
"Where Embryonic played on themes of environmental destruction, The Terror deals in more personal turmoil-- loneliness, depression, anxiety... [T]he real drama on The Terror stems from the way in which the Lips layer their tones and drones into heady, hypnotic surges. The Terror may be the Flaming Lips' most demanding album to date, but its also the most sonically of a piece, immediately thrusting you into its dense miasma and seamlessly dissolving one track into one another... [S]ome powerfully affecting moments emerge, like 'Try to Explain', a beautifully bruised break-up ballad that romanticizes the past while defeatedly acknowledging that things will never be the same... [A] significant work in their voluminous canon: By matching their ever-evolving, exploratory musical ethos with less eager-to-please, more confrontational modes of performance, the album marks the moment when the Flaming Lips become whole again." - Stuart Berman, Pitchfork, Rated 7.8
"Philip Glass and Steve Reich are clear forefathers here, both demonstrating that the key to successful minimalism is squeezing the maximum amount of life out of each note... Yes, [Coyne] may have bared all in the past, but he's never been as naked as he is here, whether shooting down most of his previously stated ideas about getting through tough shit together on 'You Are Alone' or failing to even muster the energy to 'trying walking away... to nowhere, to no one' on 'Try to Explain'... By facing down the exhausting nature of depression and loneliness (seriously, Coyne sounds so depleted that he can barely muster the dejection to sing, and yes, that's a compliment), the Lips have retroactively strengthened their entire artistic credo." - Michael Tedder, SPIN, Rated 9/10
"I was depressed for days in a good way" - The New York Times
"Destined for cult status" - The New York Times
"One of the Flaming Lips' greatest strengths is how vividly they express emotions. For most of their career, they've focused on capturing wide-eyed wonder, unbridled glee, and the occasional poignant moment, but The Terror proves they're just as good at channeling despair... As dark as the album is, it's also some of the band's most fascinating music; vintage electronics buzz and whir around Coyne's wounded vocals in a way that recalls Meddle-era Pink Floyd and the Silver Apples in its spacy bleakness... While the album often feels like a black hole sucking up all the hope in the universe, to the band's credit, they're never too obvious about it... The Terror finds the Flaming Lips at the peak of their powers as they embody what it's like to be overwhelmed; they don't offer a shoulder to cry on as much as an acknowledgment of just how isolating pain can be. While it's common to call artists brave for addressing life's darker moments, there's some truth to it: it's not easy to face up to and present the worst parts of being alive, much less in a way that's artistically pleasing or relevant. The Lips don't make it sound easy, which is why The Terror is so powerful." - Heather Phares, allmusic.com
Features:
Double LP
Side 4 contains one remix "We Don't Control the Controls" (Mashed The-F-Up-Remix)
Pressed at Record Industry
Four color cover
Two-pocket Gatefold jacket
Printed sleeves at Ross Ellis
Full Lyrics Included
Selections:
LP1 - Side A:
1. Look...The Sun Rising
2. Be Free, A Way
3. Try To Explain
LP1 - Side B:
1. You Lust
2. The Terror
LP2 - Side C:
1. You Are Alone
2. Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
3. Turning Violent
4. Always There, In Our Hearts
LP2 - Side 4:
1. We Don't Control the Controls (Mashed The F-Up-Remix)
Warner Bros. Records releases the long-awaited 13th studio album by The Flaming Lips, "The Terror".
The album was produced by the band's long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips at Tarbox Road Studios. It is comprised of nine original compositions that reflect a darker-hued spectrum than previous works, along with a more inward-looking lyrical perspective than one might expect - but then again, maybe not. It's up to you, the listener, to decide what it means to you.
The Terror is a bold and expressive journey that has evolved over The Lips' nearly 30-year tended garden of sonic delights that ebbs and flows with extraordinary splashes of darkness and light, pleasure and pain, chaos and order. As we've come to know The Flaming Lips, the real beauty lies with the knowledge that to expect the unexpected is all part of the manic fun.
"Why would we make this music that is The Terror-- this bleak, disturbing record...??", Wayne Coyne writes in a press release. "I don't really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless... or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another?? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer... We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on... we just go on there is no mercy killing."
"Where Embryonic played on themes of environmental destruction, The Terror deals in more personal turmoil-- loneliness, depression, anxiety... [T]he real drama on The Terror stems from the way in which the Lips layer their tones and drones into heady, hypnotic surges. The Terror may be the Flaming Lips' most demanding album to date, but its also the most sonically of a piece, immediately thrusting you into its dense miasma and seamlessly dissolving one track into one another... [S]ome powerfully affecting moments emerge, like 'Try to Explain', a beautifully bruised break-up ballad that romanticizes the past while defeatedly acknowledging that things will never be the same... [A] significant work in their voluminous canon: By matching their ever-evolving, exploratory musical ethos with less eager-to-please, more confrontational modes of performance, the album marks the moment when the Flaming Lips become whole again." - Stuart Berman, Pitchfork, Rated 7.8
"Philip Glass and Steve Reich are clear forefathers here, both demonstrating that the key to successful minimalism is squeezing the maximum amount of life out of each note... Yes, [Coyne] may have bared all in the past, but he's never been as naked as he is here, whether shooting down most of his previously stated ideas about getting through tough shit together on 'You Are Alone' or failing to even muster the energy to 'trying walking away... to nowhere, to no one' on 'Try to Explain'... By facing down the exhausting nature of depression and loneliness (seriously, Coyne sounds so depleted that he can barely muster the dejection to sing, and yes, that's a compliment), the Lips have retroactively strengthened their entire artistic credo." - Michael Tedder, SPIN, Rated 9/10
"I was depressed for days in a good way" - The New York Times
"Destined for cult status" - The New York Times
"One of the Flaming Lips' greatest strengths is how vividly they express emotions. For most of their career, they've focused on capturing wide-eyed wonder, unbridled glee, and the occasional poignant moment, but The Terror proves they're just as good at channeling despair... As dark as the album is, it's also some of the band's most fascinating music; vintage electronics buzz and whir around Coyne's wounded vocals in a way that recalls Meddle-era Pink Floyd and the Silver Apples in its spacy bleakness... While the album often feels like a black hole sucking up all the hope in the universe, to the band's credit, they're never too obvious about it... The Terror finds the Flaming Lips at the peak of their powers as they embody what it's like to be overwhelmed; they don't offer a shoulder to cry on as much as an acknowledgment of just how isolating pain can be. While it's common to call artists brave for addressing life's darker moments, there's some truth to it: it's not easy to face up to and present the worst parts of being alive, much less in a way that's artistically pleasing or relevant. The Lips don't make it sound easy, which is why The Terror is so powerful." - Heather Phares, allmusic.com
Features:
Double LP
Side 4 contains one remix "We Don't Control the Controls" (Mashed The-F-Up-Remix)
Pressed at Record Industry
Four color cover
Two-pocket Gatefold jacket
Printed sleeves at Ross Ellis
Full Lyrics Included
Selections:
LP1 - Side A:
1. Look...The Sun Rising
2. Be Free, A Way
3. Try To Explain
LP1 - Side B:
1. You Lust
2. The Terror
LP2 - Side C:
1. You Are Alone
2. Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
3. Turning Violent
4. Always There, In Our Hearts
LP2 - Side 4:
1. We Don't Control the Controls (Mashed The F-Up-Remix)
