The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics

2002 saw The Flaming Lips release Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, their madcap masterpiece. That album, its overreaching ambitions and morbid musings encased in elaborate musical stagings and touched up with more than a bit of the bizarre, capped an impressive three album run that began with Zaireeka. The four years that followed have allowed more than ample time for all kinds of expectation to build for their next outing, whether it be another concept album involving robots and martial arts or something similarly odd or offbeat. Pity then, that one of the most anticipated albums of 2006 is also one of the most disappointing. Sure, At War With The Mystics has hooks aplenty; lead single “W.A.N.D.” (Will Always Negates Defeat) features a buzzing guitar chord the band blasts into something akin to a rock song, and “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” seems a surefire prog-pop pleaser with its crescendoing chorus and goofy dialogue on free will. But the intergalactic array of belches, handclaps, sirens and programmed pulses, chirps, and bleeps which The Lips and co-producers Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker use to then flesh out these tunes betray the album’s sheer lack of substance. For while At War With The Mystics ostensibly covers some of the same ground as Yoshimi and attempts the same musical grandiosity, its lyrics are clumsily constructed, and the swirling sound that teetered so precariously on Yoshimi tumbles here into a kind of musical flatulence. Sadly enough, it’s as if the band’s greatest asset, their willingness and eagerness to experiment, is to blame here. At War ends up wearing its influences on its sleeve, instead of its heart or its thoughts, like the band was too busy tarting up the sounds of the 70’s to focus their creative energies into something more cohesive. “Pompeii AM Gotterdammerung,” as cool as it may be, rates an almost unavoidable comparison with Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days,” and many of the other songs are reminiscent of Steely Dan. Still, it’s hard to blame their band for their effort; for all its missteps, At War With The Mystics isn’t necessarily a bad album. It just wasn’t worth the wait. [www.flaminglips.com]