Allegra Papera
Online Arts Editor
The Flaming Lips’ “Oczy Mlody” draws in listeners with a combination of dreamy instrumentals and emotional lyrics.
The Flaming Lips’ 12-track experimental album “Oczy Mlody” fuses together dreamlike instrumental tracks, heartfelt lyrics and an overtly dynamic track list to create an album that intrigues and mystifies listeners with every turn. However, the album’s extreme diversity makes it difficult for any one track to standout, causing the album fade into background.
The Flaming Lips are an experimental rock band that began playing music in Oklahoma City in 1983. The band’s ever-changing lineup currently includes Wayne Coyne on vocals, Michael Ivins on bass, and Steven Drozd and Derek Brown on guitar.
While the Grammy award-winning band has been recognized for decades, they made themselves known to a younger generation in 2015 with their collaboration with Miley Cyrus on her 2015 album “Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz.”
The majority of “Oczy Mlody” is made up of a plethora of dreamy instrumental tracks, making it unique from most rock albums that typically only feature songs including vocals. Additionally, the instrumental tracks often feature extraterrestrial sounds that come together to produce a mystical, otherworldly ambience that ultimately excites and entrances listeners.
The few tracks that do feature vocals are pleasantly include emotional lyrics. The album’s fourth track “Sunrise” features a heartfelt reflection on love, including the lyrics “I think it’s with you all the time; It only hurts when it leaves you.” The lyrics successfully evoke feeling from the listeners and captures their attention with the surprising change of pace from the rest of the album.
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The album’s complex tracklist offers listeners endless variety from its array of dreamlike instrumentals to its warm-toned vocal tracks. The variation serves as a way to keep listeners alert during the duration of the album, keeping them on their toes as they anticipate yet another utterly unique track.
Despite the album’s creatively dynamic approach, the inconsistency between each song ultimately makes it impossible for any one track to standout from the rest, failing to give the album any overarching theme or purpose. These flaws detract from the potential quality of individual songs, making the album as a whole simply fade into background.
Learn more about the Flaming Lips here.
The Flaming Lips’ ability to combine completely unique sounds and feelings into one album shows their range as artists, but fails to connect songs together in a cohesive tracklist. The album ultimately makes an impression on listeners. It may not however, be a lasting one.
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