Review Summary: What could’ve been a kiss of death turns out to be an important stepping stone for the Flaming Lips.
Alright, first and foremost, this album is unlike almost any other. Sure, there have been certain gimmicks where you play one album with another album at the same time, in order to get some sort of translucent effect, but no album has taken things to this extreme.
Zaireeka is an album comprised of four individual CDs, which are all meant to be played at the same time. Does it sound difficult, gimmicky, or just plain stupid? Maybe, but I’m not here to repeat what Pitchfork did in 1997 when this was released, I’m here to talk about the music itself. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s see what’s actually inside this musical experiment.
The Flaming Lips were going through some rather drastic changes at this point in time. Perhaps the biggest loss was the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones, who they considered one of the creative forces of the band. With that in mind, frontman Wayne Coyne thought it would be a good idea to do something completely absurd, and began the early stages of the
Zaireeka album. He started something he called “the Parking Lot Experiments”, where he would invite a bunch of people to a secret concert, hand out about 20 or so cassette tapes, and tell everyone to play them from different boomboxes at once. This would of course be crucial to the foundation of this record, and due to Ronald’s absence, they began exploring more symphonic and synth-oriented music. With that in mind, is this really too much different than say,
The Soft Bulletin?
According to the band’s manager Scott Booker,
Zaireeka and
The Soft Bulletin were made simultaneously. Because of this, they both sound quite similar, with
Zaireeka feeling more like the attempt at finding their next sound. Songs such as “Riding to Work in the Year of 2025”, “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair”, and “The Train Runs Over the Camel but is Derailed by the Gnat” sound like prototypical versions of the sound that is generally used on
Bulletin. They all feature Wayne’s unique vocal approach, beautiful symphonic melodies, and the occasional twist into some sort of madness. The big difference between the two records though is the droning, almost lazy feel the Lips present on this record. Now, that’s not an entirely bad thing, but this really sounds like a record where the band simply doesn’t care what people think of the music they’re creating. Wayne’s voice will occasionally miss a note at a very obvious moment, the amount of different instrumentation can be overwhelming, the performances might stumble occasionally, and they seem to delve into indescribable noise every so often.
This could easily be considered the most ambitious Flaming Lips album, for many reasons. I already listed the musical elements that make it ambitious, but the original number of CDs Wayne wanted to do is also kind of worth mentioning. He supposedly wanted to do 100 CDs at first, until Scott told him he was “***ing crazy”. But, that’s beside the point, there’s even more to talk about musically. Quite a few of these songs will travel all over the place, in an almost suite-like tendency. As for the noise portion, songs such as “Big Ol’ Bug is the New Baby Now” and “How Will We Know (Futuristic Crashendos)” feature some really painful noise, with “How Will We Know” both discussing what’s happening musically, as well as doing it. “Big Ol’ Bug” is a big, bombastic ending track, with an outro of all four discs playing some sort of really loud, distorted sound of dogs barking repeatedly. Things like this make for a very challenging, but rewarding listen in the end.
After careful examination, multiple thorough listens, and lots of thinking, I will proudly call this musical experiment a success. Yes, it’s a hassle to actually listen to, but with the rise of recording technology and piracy, it shouldn’t be hard to put it together yourself, or find a copy of it already pieced together cohesively. This is easily one of the most difficult records in the Flaming Lips catalog, and that’s really saying something considering the other things they’ve done.
Zaireeka is a trippy, noisy, and challenging, but ultimately rewarding listen. The feel of the album is generally all over the place, ranging from cheery art pop to gloomy psychedelia. This may only be accessible to hardcore Lips fans, but either way it’s a truly rewarding musical experience. So overall, this is an important album for the Flaming Lips, despite its unfortunately overlooked status.
