Bring it Mystics! You Got Nothing!

It’s very rare that one song on an album can sum up the entire work especially when the aforementioned record is a masterpiece with a surprise around every corner.

Here’s one solitary song; one song called “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small . . . Do I Stand A Chance?” that pretty much sums up the Flaming Lips’ new album At War With The Mystics. As ridiculous as that sounds, this song contains the essence that is the Lips’ newest opus. When moving from fuzzed out space funk to an ethereal jaunt down our subconscious, what’s left in the middle, and on the rest of the album, will amaze, at the very least. The key here, of course, is that everything is being done above the atmosphere. You have to understand that the Flaming Lips’ feet have ceased to touch the Earth. They have ascended to the level of cosmic beings unfettered by the gravitational pull of terrestrial life, moving freely in the ether of creative whim and inspired sustenance.

I’m blown away, and you will be too when the Lips’ orbit will bring them back toward Earth on March 27. They will pass as close to our planet as they have in almost four years when their last trip through the galaxy resulted in the beautiful, ecstatic Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. If they decide to stick around and go on tour instead of returning to the moon (Oklahoma City) then we will all be in for a real treat. Costumes and confetti. Giant balloons and fake blood. Sing-a-longs and fuzzy feelings. Fist pumping and megaphones. Oh, and happiness. Just happiness.

Stuff to Sample: From the Flaming Lips’ new album At War with the Mystics “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small . . . Do I Stand A Chance?” and the Lip’s cover of the White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army”