Review Summary: evocative surrealist masterpiece that took psych pop to a new level
This album was a turning point not just for the Flaming Lips, but for the genre of psychedelic pop rock. The 80's was a decade of great innovation in psychedelia; bands like The Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth infused the genre with a new level of intensity in abrasion and post-punk dynamics. What the Lips did with this 1989 album was to emphasize the pop element of the new psych; it was a more streamlined sound that was still artful and acid crazed.
The production here is massive and epic, which really sets this apart from other 80's noise bubblegum albums like "Isn't Anything" and "Sister". All of the classic rock/blues rock influenced elements of previous Lips albums were jettisoned here, and the noise element became much more prominent. Previous albums had featured a fair amount of skronkery and weirdo shredding, but these songs feature lysergic flurries of noise that are massive in scope.
No other band of this time was unleashing noise this unique and immense except for Sonic Youth circa "Daydream Nation". Part of this new and noisier direction can be attributed to the addition of former Lips roadie Jonothan Donahue, who with this album became the first person to play guitar alongside founder Wayne Coyne. Wayne has said the band was revitalized by Jonothan's idiosyncratic talents, and they were committed to a new approach after their previous album, which they considered a failure ("Telepathic Surgery").
Guitars groan like grumpy ghouls, gurgle like sludge down a drain, and skree from the sky like a plane going down in flames. These chaotic sounds all swirl over a base of spirited guitar strum that keeps things melodic amidst all the tumult. It's like eating a cherry popsicle while you drown in a whirlpool of honey.
There are moments of calm where the noise element becomes quiet and subtle. "Five Stop Mother Superior Brain" starts with Wayne singing over an acoustic in a plaintive southern drawl. As the song develops, a wrenching electric guitar noise begins to resound plangently in the distance. Later, the heretofore absent drums kick in, and the electric guitar becomes more frenzied, though it remains in the distant ether. Halfway through, there is a vertiginous guitar solo that is amazing in its skewed majesty.
"Take Me to Mars" features a deep, funky groove encircled by soft swells of alien morse code. "Stand in Line" is spaghetti western noir that begins with dramatic acoustic chord accents and then builds slowly into an eerie and blaring crescendo. "There You Are" is a song of sorrowful despondence with a soft guitar motif and a wistful guitar outro.
Some of the songs eschew subtlety entirely and employ constant torrents of guitar chaos. However, even in the more harsh rock songs, such as "God Walks Among Us Now", there is a heavy element of twisted melody. Songs tend to stick to verse/chorus format, though a couple songs dive into deep stretches of floaty guitar drone.
This album saw the Lips at their harshest and most challenging. It is extremely melodic, but the experimental guitar work is much more abrasive than other mid-period Lips works. A later album like "Cloud Tastes Metallic" employs a hefty amount of bizarre guitar work, but not in this kind of extremely avant-garde fashion. Whether this album is the Lips best depends on your tolerance for surreal guitar excess. If you love wild and fearlessly explorative guitar work mixed with pop grandiosity, you must have this seminal album.
