If you’re a Flaming Lips fan, you know never to expect anything from a new release of theirs, because it’s most likely going to be different than you thought it would be.  I mean, we ARE talking about the band who released a 4-disc set, Zaireeka, only all 4 discs were to be played at the same time in different parts of the room.  We ARE talking about a band who brought 60 people with 60 cars together to an indoor parking garage, gave each of them a cassette for their tape-decks, had everyone turn on said tapes, open their trunks, and then just had everyone listen to the work they had created.  These boys, at times, can be really cutting edge, even in a frustrating way.
 
They’ve always been a band that has bordered both on trippy, and pop, but has always seemed to straddle that fence, bringing the 2 brilliantly together on their 2002 masterpiece, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  While their 2006 follow up, At War With the Mystics, tended to go a little closer to the mainstream sound they can produce, Embryonic goes in the opposite “trippy” direction.
 
An ambitious hour and 10 minutes over 2 discs, Embryonic is an initial difficult listen, and I didn’t like the record upon hearing it the first time.  While Yoshimi and Mystics had a very polished and produced feel, there’s moments on the record that I wondered if they just turned on the old recording devices, counted themselves in, and did some of these songs in one take.  And that’s not to say the quality suffers because of it, because I think in the end, I wanted them to release something slightly uncomfortable and edgy.  While being trippy, there’s a definite sense that much of this material would work live.  Sometimes electronic, but never losing its organic feel.  Also, there’s a few more instrumental numbers on this record, and songs that are mostly instrumental with minimal vocals.  The placement of these tracks really do work in terms of continuity.
 
There’s several track names on this album that envoke the zodiac.  “Aquarius Sabotage,” “Gemini Syringes,” “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” “Scorpio Sword,” and “Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast.”  Even with that said, that’s not the real “theme,” of this record.  In fact, it seems to do a great job at almost being a concept record without ever really getting there.
 
Stand-out tracks include the aforementioned “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” “See the Leaves,” “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine,” “Worm Mountain (feat. MGMT),” and “Silver Trembling Hands.”  Lips fans should be pleased with this release, which really does sound like what Zaireeka would have sounded like in 2009 if they only came up with the concept this year, only over 2 discs that you play one at a time.  So much easier. 4 out of 5 stars.

~Mark Massi