Album: The Terror
Record Label: Bella Union
Wayne Coyne & Co. take you on a guided tour through a nightmarish but ultimately engulfing trip
Drugs and The Flaming Lips have always gone so much hand in hand that it's got to the point where psychedelics have become part of their ethos, it seems. More often than not you could put a Flaming Lips record on whilst stone cold sober and feel absolutely frazzled by a cocktail of handpicked wild mushrooms and Ecstacy by the end of it.
That is not the case with "The Terror" however, because it sounds as though Coyne's amphetamine psychosis has finally caught up with him. "The Terror" is a nightmarish, unnerving trip through paranoia, death and bleakly beautiful but equally as alienating walls of sound. "Try To Explain" is a bleak account of heartbreak and Coyne sings "Try to explain why you're leaving, I don't think I'll understand" over glacial, shimmering drones, reverb laden rushes and painfully sad harmonies. "You Are Alone" is a schizophrenic session of freakish loops, rogue synths and ghostly swoons. "Butterfly, How Long It takes to Die" is propelled by an off- kilter bass line and tribal, primal drum roll combined with sparse synth circulations as Coyne moans "If you've ever really seen the sun set, you will know how long it takes to die."
They save the best until last however, in the shape of "Always there... In Our Hearts." It' tense and horrified, with Coyne reminding us thusly: "Always there in our hearts, there is evil that wants out." The song builds into a pugilistic, soaring climax whilst keeping the tone bleak.
"The Terror" certainly isn't easy listening, but it's music that will whisk you away to another place, another mindset, and that is it's most momentous achievement. There's not point trying to resist, eventually it will engulf you.
Key Tracks: Always There... In Our Hearts, Try To Explain, Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
For fans of: Pink Floyd, Super Furry Animals
8/10
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