The Flaming Lips serve music well-done
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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It seems one Christmas gift to the global community went unnoticed this year: on Dec. 22, The Flaming Lips and blood-related act Stardeath and White Dwarves gave to us their rendition of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.” For those of you who do not know, Pink Floyd is an acid rock band from the 1970s who pioneered how music is made today with material ahead of their time. For those who might know Pink Floyd but draw a blank on The Flaming Lips, they are the heirs of what Pink Floyd started decades ago. I knew as I downloaded this album I’d be in for a treat, and as usual with The Flaming Lips, I got exactly what I wanted in a way I never would have expected.
This album is a true collaboration between the two bands, with the music split about 60-40 between original and new material. Stardeath and White Dwarves offer a solid supporting backdrop for the distinctive sound of The Flaming Lips, whose influence over the cover seemed more prominent. The album is consistent with The Flaming Lips’ usual style, a psychedelically embellished art rock act, with electronic components like drum machines and synthesizers layered in as well.
I could break the songs up into three categories of approach: there is The Flaming Lips’ original material infused with Pink Floyd ideas; there is the futuristic retelling of old classics; and lastly, the direct quote spoken with The Faming Lips’ voice. For example, the album opens with a heartbeat sound clip, and builds an ambient intensity which then focuses itself into a funky rock groove with a Latin percussion flavor, a huge contrast from the nearly jazz fusion original, but wholly recognizable as “Breathe” when the vocals make their entrance. Then later in the album, a chorus of electronic alarm clocks start off the track “Time,” creating a polyrhythm that sounds like a techno remix of all the grandfather clocks used in the original. “Us and Them” opens up with mellowing keyboard notes like the original, but with classic Flaming Lips reverb tone that gives it captivating presence, leading the album into its final movement and climax with the last three songs following the same dynamic as the original.
What sets this album apart is that instead of doing a traditional cover, riff for riff, note for note, giving all creative control to the original composer, The Flaming Lips and friends thought about it conceptually. When Pink Floyd plays things that have a specific effect on the listener, The Flaming Lips thought “What do we do that has that effect on people?” and the result is a completely different album that I can listen to exactly the same way as the original, without listening to a Pink Floyd CD at all.
There’s no more specific way to describe the record other than that, except for maybe an analogy comparing it to the best steak of your life. At first, you sink your ears into what has been presented to you, a not overly-raw, not overdone, saucy composition cooked to perfection. Then after you take your first bite, the juicy sounds underlying the meat of the piece spill into your brain and steal your attention for a second, before your mind is redirected to the wonderful texture of the music and all its flavorful layers. The best part, by far, is that there is enough steak to fill 42 minutes of runtime.
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