The new Flaming Lips album isn't as immediate as
The Soft Bulletin. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with my version of the album being the unmastered one, but the songs don't sound as vibrant as on the last album. There isn't as much clarity in the instruments and it's sometimes difficult to discern what exactly is going on in the supporting musical lines beneath the vocals, guitar, and drums. It all just sounds like one big blend of sound. This is kind of weird since I didn't feel that I had much of a problem listening to that early Japanese version of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1" a couple of days ago. I'll have to listen to the album on headphones to see if all my complaining is just a matter of "early leaked album sound quality loss" or something like that. Forgetting about the muddled sound for a second though, I will say that these songs do seem interesting upon first listen. The rhythms found in many of them are a little bit unexpected when you consider the grand, flowery pop songs that the Lips were writing just a few years ago. I'd even go as far to say that they sometimes have a bit of an IDM flavor to them. That should be your first clue that the new songs weren't really designed to carry that big, uplifting feel that much of
The Soft Bulletin had. The change in Wayne's vocals suggest this as well, being that he's gone all Sparklehorse on us, leaning more towards the "subdued guy with a high-pitched voice" persona rather than the "highly excitable guy who loves life" one. Personally, I'm still undecided how well these changes work. It all depends on whether or not the songwriting is now strong enough to make up for the loss of positive emotional energy that surrounded the music previously.
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots could end up being a real grower, but at this point, I'm going to guess that it falls short of reaching the "masterpiece" status that most fans have bestowed on
The Soft Bulletin. Call it a hunch.
