By Anthony Bromberg
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
abromberg@media.ucla.edu
Modern art is littered with tales of good and evil, stories
about the fate of humankind and whether it can survive the
trappings of the very modernity it created. The latest apocalyptic
myth dreamed up by creative minds of the 21st Century involves a
Japanese female musician saving you and I from deadly pink
robots.
“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” is the title of
the latest album, released July 17, by geek-rockers the Flaming
Lips. The disc is the first traditional album from the group since
1999’s overly critically lauded “The Soft
Bulletin,” and this is the group’s best music yet. In
support of the Warner Brothers release the Lips played a short set
and then signed freshly bought copies of “Yoshimi” at a
crowded Amoeba Records, on the release date. The Lips will be
joining the “Unlimited Sunshine Tour” with Cake and
Modest Mouse this summer to further encourage record sales.
The Lips sound has evolved into a dense, spacey soundscape since
the band burst onto the scene with the alt-rock hit “She
Don’t Use Jelly,” you remember the next lyric,
“she uuuses vaaaaaassoline.” Yes, besides the quirky
instrumentation the other defining Lips characteristic is the even
quirkier lyrics.
With songs in its repertoire about bugs, sub-atomic pieces, and
Superman, the Lips has a funny way of approaching weird and obscure
topics and making them apply to universal human relations.
Conversely, the weak part of the group’s sound has been
frontman Wayne Coyne’s undistinguished vocal. Coyne has a
tendency to sound like the singers of other geek-rock bands like
Modest Mouse and Built to Spill, but with less success. He leaves
the listener underwhelmed, tending not to rise above being a
monotonous accompaniment to the far more interesting music.
On “Yoshimi” the Lips works out a formula that is
perfectly to suited to their style and strong points. From the
title it is clear that the band hasn’t abandoned its goofy
lyrical edge, as the songs deliver on the themes of the title with
the hero based on the real-life Yoshimi from the Japanese group the
Boredoms (and who is listed as a supplementary musician on this
record). Spinning a loosely lyrically connected concept piece of a
world inhabited by robots and humans, Coyne uses broad surreal
imagery to create a work that, as a whole, maintains a consistent
otherworldly atmosphere while he zones in on more specific problems
of human relations.
While the songwriting is a particularly effective brand of Lips
shtick, the mood also allows Coyne’s voice to take a less
prominent role. On “Yoshimi” the Lips incorporates
harmonies, vocals that feel lower in the mix, and a couple of songs
where the vocals are strange background noises, like “Yoshimi
Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2.”
The instrumentation also surpasses the success of “The
Soft Bulletin,” with even denser arrangements and sounds. The
bass is thicker and groovier than on past Lips efforts. The effects
and spacey keyboard-type atmospherics are funkier and even more
fun. The transitions and flow between songs, which includes
cheering, produces a disc that feels like one crazy space odyssey,
and is an enjoyable story.
The album may not change the courses of good and evil or man and
machine. And even though it probably isn’t even the best
album released so far this year, it is fun and may be worth a
perusal just to see the giant pink robot on the cover.