Customer Reviews
Wayne's Powers Waning? - By: Man Without a Soul, 13 Oct 2008 
Nowhere near their best but still has some good moments. There are signs of a welcome return to the more expansive sound of The Soft Bulletin (Sound of Failure, the end of It Overtakes Me). A couple of absolute duds (Free Radicals, Haven't Got A Clue) & a bit of fodder (Ambulance Driver, Goin' On) bring the rating down.
Pleasing, but not thrilling - By: A. Sweeney, 09 Sep 2007 
As someone who loved The Soft Bulletin but failed to be entirely seduced by Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, I approached this album with cautious interest. The Flaming Lips are a band blessed with obvious eccentric talent, but often do not channel itin the most effective way... well, this time they certainly did. This is a consistently good album & probably their most complete piece of work to date. There are fantastic album tracks such as The Sounds Of Failure & My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion & moments of pure pop joy like It Overtakes Me which would have been show-stoppers on their last two albums, but they instead feel like texturally-rich, thoroughly enjoyable, well-crafted pieces of a rather splendid & colourful jigsaw.
It falls short of being dubbed a masterpiece, however, because of a few pedestrian tracks which the album could probably have lived without, such as Mr. Ambulance Driver & Haven't Got A Clue, giving At War With The Mystics an unfortunate mid-album lull. The album finishes strongly with the bizarrely titled Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung & Goin' On - one of the most straight forward songs The Flaming Lips have ever released and, stripped of all their bombast & electronic backdrop, they sound very pleasant indeed. For me this is one of the surprise packages of the year - a consistent Flaming Lips album which generally only pleases & doesn't particularly frustrate.
Let It Wash Over You - By: Jim Dubh, 17 Jul 2007 As a complete album, I actually think that this is The Flaming Lips' best. Yes, some of the lyrics may be abysmal, the "yeah, yeah, yeah" of "The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song" fame does become plain irritating after a couple of listens, & The Lips on politics may well provide you with about as much depth as an ashtray does. The fact remains, though, that this is a sonic masterpiece - don't listen to hear this album, listen to absorb it.
It is a psychadelic rock album from start to finish - the album's name, the artwork, the song names (e.g. "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion - The Inner Life As Blazing Shield Of Defiance And Optimism As Celestial Spear Of Action"), twelve songs that take 55 minutes to listen to, the many references to cosmology & mysticism, & the lush, multi-layerd music.
My favourite song is the Pink Floyd-inspired "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung". Melodically, it is beautiful. Please just listen to it. The song itself (sung by Drozd) is about two lovers about to die from the volcano eruption that destroys Pompeii, but who recognise that their bodies will remain together, preserved for all time. The Götterdämmerung of the song title is a Wagnerian opera based on a Norse myth regarding a foretold war of the Gods that brings about the end of the world - a far more subtle reference to the political overtones of this album then the sledgehammer used elsewhere.
An even more poignant song is "The Sound of Failure" - a song that challenges the culture of remaining cheerful & hopefulin the face of life's darker moments, including for Coyne, the death of his mother during the recording of the album. In other words, that it is okay to be thoughful & to reflect on life's more bleaker aspects:
So go tell Britney & go tell Gwen/
She's not tryin' to go against all them/
'Cause she's too scared & she can't pretend/
To understand where it begins or ends/
Or what it means to be dead.
The song itself is reminiscint of "The Soft Bulletin"'s finer offerings - a slow tempo, softly-sung lyrics, & emotionally moving.
Politically-motivated songs, on the other hand, are are not normally associated with The Flaming Lips. However. on this album, they open with two of them. The first is "The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song", a song that challenges people to say what they would do differentlyin a similar position. It is a genuinely good song, save for the ceaseless repetition of "yeah, yeah, yeah", & asks a question many never of ask of themselves when they criticise others. "Free Radicals" though is a song that would be utterly forgetable if it was not for the fact that it sounds like Prince at his regal best. It is so catchy that I defy anyone not to catch themselves singing those terrible lyrics afterwards!
Laterin the album, the political theme returns on "Haven't Got a Clue" with what appears like a direct assault on the presidency of George Bush. However, while Coyne's frustration may be genuine, the softly sung, but knuckle-dragging refrain of "every time you state your case, the more I want to punch your face" just sounds puerile & lacks credibility. At least Coyne acknowledges such limitationsin an interview with "The Independent" newspaper:
"We would never make protest music, & I don't necessarily think that music can change the world. I mean, it's wonderful but music is just music. But the idea of ignoring Bush & this war is ridiculous too. It's like when you're so mad, you punch the wall. Obviously it doesn't do you any good, but if you don't punch the wall, you feel even worse."
The last such song (and the album's first single) is "The W.A.N.D.", a mystical song about taking on such political masters with a magic wand...
The album ends with "Goin' On". It is another of The Lips' slow-tempo, poignant pieces that brings a dignified ending to a sonic roller-coaster of an album.
I tried, I mean I really tried... - By: Grundig, 07 Jul 2007 
... but the sad fact is that it's not up to scratch.
Bands have their ups & downs, but the FLs have produced gem after gem. Until now. Fans of their earlier, harder stuff might have found 'Soft Bulletin' & 'Yoshimi' a little flimsy, but there was no denying the craftsmanship & the originality of those albums. The desire to play & surprise is still here but on far too many songs there's just nothing substantial, nothing to stickin the mind.
There's a few great tracks, as others have pointed out, & for those songs I'll give it 3 stars, but too many songs sound like the Flaming Lips playing at being the Flaming Lips, iyswim. Right down to the mad song titles. Sad.
Let's hope it's just a blip. For all the brilliance of their other work & the joy it's given me, I can forgive them this one slip-up. But no more lads, please!
Not Their Best - By: Samski, 01 Jul 2007 I found the Album to be one of those which you love at first, but grow to hate.
The first few times i listened to the album it was amasing, but after a few listens the tracks became boring & meaningless. It feels likt they have not put as much effort into the songs, so the magic that was the Flaming Lips is not quite there..
An intresting listen, but not up to scratch for such a fantastic band..
