Track Listing

1. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
2. Free Radicals
3. The Sound of Failure
4. My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
5. Vein of Stars
6. The Wizard Turns On...
7. It Overtakes Me
8. Mr. Ambulance Driver
9. Haven't Got a Clue
10. The W.A.N.D.
11. W.A.N.D.
12. Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung
13. Goin' On

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19494 in Music
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Grows on you in your sleep
Being a semi-recent Flips fan I am not the best barometer to measure whether it's a 'return to roots' or 'more of the same'.

What I can say is that after many, many listenings I can honestly say it will take many more to get my head around this record.

On first listen I was ecstatically singing along to "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song" then getting confused by the sudden turn of minimalist funk of "Free Radicals". Then the saddest ballad in the world "Sound of Failure".

The rest of the album continued to turn unexpected corners, leaving my expectations trembling and confused. Was this awful? Was this brilliant?'

The only choice was repeated listening. And it paid off. Each song is so amazingly great in its genre that it makes the following track wiggle like a worm on a hook.

Only after repeated listenings can one appreciate the gestalt of the album. It's a 12-part course of unique flavors and styles. Last week 'Free Radicals' was my favorite track. This week it's 'Sound of Failure'. Next week maybe 'Mr. Ambulance Driver' will grab me the way it's grabbed most people.

In any case, The Flaming Lips are following their own muse, and I'm happy to join the queue.

Ignore what I have to say
Don't listen to me--or anyone else for that matter. Instead go to flaminglips.com, select the audio section and there you can hear every track in its entirety for free. That's what I did. And I bought the CD immediately.

no chapped lips here...
how do you describe the flaming lip? 'art provacateurs?' 'cartoons?' 'experimentalists?' 'mad geniuses?' all those superlatives, and more, apply to the flaming lips. as mentioned above, coyne and co., have ditched the concept album approach in favor the more 'traditional' album (but suprisingly isn't *that* different from 'yoshimi). the result? a suprising vibrant and solid record. (their best? maybe.)

i didn't know what to expect after back-to-back genre defining albums. how do you follow up two of the better albums of the last twenty years? well, in this case, you try to top it. do they do it? yes. with 'mystics,' coyne and co. up the ante and delivered a truly great album

the beauty of 'mystics' is that channels so many past and present influences. much of 'mystics' sounds mined from 70s AM Gold radio (except in stereo). the flutes in 'the sound of failure' and 'the wizard turns on' are unexpected, yet perfect, addition. there are touches of weirdness (the sped-up vocals on 'it overtakes me,' and the sirens on 'mr. ambulance driver') and a song ('goin' on') that sounds like the perfect theme song to a 'welcome back, kotter' spin-off. lest that description scare anyone, you needn't worry--it's a brilliant song and the perfect album closer. The disco-influenced 'Mr ambulance driver' and the soporific 'pompeii...' are distant cousins to 'yoshimi's' 'in the morning of the magicians.' 'w.a.n.d.' sounds like one of queen's long-lost songs, yet is quintessentially flaming lips through and through.

the more i listen to this album, the better it gets. it really does. wayne delivers some absolutely exhilirating melodies. they aren't always immediatly evident, but they're are indeed there. dave fridman's production is stellar, as usual. as with every lips album before it, 'mystics' is an endlessly interesting listen. one gets the feeling coyne and co. will never rest on their laurels, and it's never more apparent than on 'mystics.' it's a dizzying, wonderful release from a band that twenty years in seems to be barely tapping their full creativity. thank god for the lips. highly recommended.

p.s. listen to it with headphones, repeatedly. you won't want to miss it.