Album Review: Flaming Lips expand on experimental front

With past album, the former acid-heads from Oklahoma soothed us with charming choruses, off-kilter instrumentation and experimental joy.

But with their soon to be released double disc album, The Flaming Lips have introduced a darker and more hypnotic sound that has yet to be revealed.

At first "Embryonic" seems like a challenging and inaccessible album with its emotional peaks and valleys, but with multiple listens comes the weightless beauty of "Evil" and zany wit of "Aquarius Sabotage," qualities that made prior Lips albums so intriguing.

As in the past, dark and atmospheric undertones of Pink Floyd's "Darkside Of The Moon" are to be found everywhere. "Gemini Syringes" and "Powerless" both make strong arguments for the Lips to be regarded as the modern day Pink Floyd.

Elsewhere, "The Impulse" feels like something the French electronic band "Air" would produce. While lead singer Wayne Coyne sounds freakishly identical to the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division on the uncanny "Sagittarius Silver Announcement."

There is no song on "Embryonic" that will matchup to the catchiness and spunk of pervious hits "Waitin' For A Superman," "Do You Realize??," and "The W.A.N.D," but a radio-friendly song  really isn't what was needed for this album to work – nor has it ever been for any other Lips album . 

In reality, no band is currently doing what the Lips are with Noise Pop. It's nice that a band on a major label like Warner Bros is able to experiment and expand their boundaries, even if sometimes the conclusion is more bizarre and out of range than one might have expected.