Flaming Lips Battle Weirdness And Win

Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Some of the most innovative, impressive and important rock music isn't brewing in the usual scenes of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco or Austin -- no, it's coming out of Oklahoma City.

This unlikely Midwestern hot spot is home to the Flaming Lips, purveyors of trippy, dreamy rock that has always seemed to float alongside the clouds more than it has stayed down to earth.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the band's latest effort, is the type of album that comes along only once in a while: one whose songs are quite effective on their own but that don't reach full potential until combined.

The record as a whole is a concept album, and love is the primary subject. The "pink robots" are portrayed as evil machines in the title song, and they could possibly represent love's negative aspects. Lead singer Wayne Coyne puts his embattled emotions and experiences on the spot in his examination of his love life and his very existence. During the course of Yoshimi, he laments lost opportunities, blurs the line between love and hate and looks for answers.

"I was waiting on a moment but the moment never came/All the billion other moments were just slipping all away," Coyne sings on "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell." That song and others deal with the mistakes and insecurities that lead to letting good things go.

The sorrow, confusion and regret don't last. Yoshimi ends on a note that, while not particularly happy, is one of acceptance and, to some extent, closure.

Coyne illustrates a feeling of carpe diem on "Do You Realize??" by crooning, "Let them know you realize that life goes fast/It's hard to make the good things last/You realize the sun doesn't go down/It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round."

At one point, the band was arguably rock's most ambitious force. Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins were at their most daring with 1997's Zaireeka, a monstrous work that required four separate sound systems to play simultaneously its four discs -- each disc contained the same set of songs but was recorded with different instruments and at different frequencies than its three brethren.

The Lips scaled down such audacity with 1999's The Soft Bulletin and continue to do so with Yoshimi. In the meantime, the band has wisely honed its songwriting and sharpened its points. The Soft Bulletin ultimately is the better album, but Yoshimi certainly isn't some kind of weaker sibling. Whereas its predecessor is chock full of grand and epic sonic statements, the new effort is more direct and concise.

For all of Yoshimi's electronic flourish and flair, it remains an amazingly tight listen. Before any musical ideas have a chance to become tiring and peter out, fresh ones pop up in their place. For all of the record's weirdness, Coyne and company can still veer dangerously close to pure pop. The Flaming Lips have kept these staggering sounds accessible while staying true to their subject.

Not bad for a trio from the unlikely musical melting pot of Oklahoma.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.