At War with the Mystics [CD & DVD]

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Since 1999's The Soft Bulletin, the Flaming Lips have issued an album once every three or four years -- roughly once per presidential term, making At War with the Mystics the second album they've made during George W. Bush's presidency. While Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' themes of seizing the moment and accepting mortality could easily be read as a reaction to 9/11, At War with the Mystics is a more overtly timely album for the early 2000s, dealing with the motivation behind the war in Iraq and Bush's presidency. By grappling with heavy subjects like these, it could seem that the Flaming Lips are taking their role as one of America's most prominent and beloved alternative rock bands too seriously, but Mystics' light touch shows that they can still be important without being self-important. In fact, the album's most pointed tracks are the most playful. As they did on Yoshimi's "Fight Test," the Lips couch their aggression in bouncy melodies and playful production tricks. With its robotic doo wop vocals and strummy acoustic guitars, "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" -- which asks its listeners if they could do any better if they were handed all the power in the world -- sounds oddly like a Paul Simon song updated for the 21st (or maybe even 22nd) century. "Free Radicals," which sounds like Prince via Beck with a dash of Daft Punk, and "Haven't Got a Clue," which boasts the refrain "Every time you state your case, the more I want to punch your face," get their points across emphatically -- almost too emphatically, actually, for as catchy as these songs are, they don't really expand on their thoughts or sounds much. However, the middle section of At War with the Mystics is expansive and intimate at the same time, like many of the Flaming Lips' best moments have been. "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" and "Vein of Stars" play like updates of The Soft Bulletin's effortless, weightless beauty, and "The Sound of Failure" is a reminder that it's OK to be sad sometimes (while getting in digs at the teen pop platitudes of Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani) set to a gorgeous backdrop of soft rock flutes and guitars and twittering electronics. This stretch of songs plays almost like a suite, which ties right in with At War with the Mystics' prog rock leanings. Pink Floyd is a major influence on the entire album: "The Wizard Turns On..." is a spacy, late-night instrumental that could easily be synched to The Wizard of Oz, while "Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung" also taps into Floyd's elaborate, epic power. These trippy moments make At War with the Mystics the most psychedelic and least immediate album the Flaming Lips have done in a long, long time, and the way that Mystics bounces back and forth between its ethereal and zany moments gives it a disjointed, uneven feel that makes the album a shade less satisfying than either Yoshimi or Soft Bulletin. Still, as standout tracks like "Mr. Ambulance Driver" and "Goin' On" show, the band is still fighting the good fight and confronting the bad things in life with hope, optimism, and just the right amount of (magical) realism. [This CD/DVD edition features outtakes, radio sessions and video extras, in addition to the 5.1 Surround mixes of the standard album tracks.] ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Artist	The Flaming Lips
Format	CD
Genre	Rock
Label Name	Warner Bros.
Producer	Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker, Trent Bell
Release Date	2006 10 24
Song List	1: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (4:51) 2: Free Radicals (3:41) 3: The Sound of Failure/It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark?? (7:18) 4: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (4:51) 5: Vein of Stars (4:15) 6: The Wizard Turns On (3:41) 7: It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big...I Am So Small...Do I Stand a C (6:50) 8: Mr. Ambulance Driver (4:21) 9: Haven't Got a Clue (3:25) 10: The W.A.N.D. (3:42) 11: Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung (4:21) 12: Goin' On (3:39) 13: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song [2.0 Stereo] 14: Free Radicals [2.0 Stereo] 15: The Sound of Failure/It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark?? [5.1 Surround] 16: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion [2.0 Stereo] 17: Vein of Stars [2.0 Stereo] 18: The Wizard Turns On... [2.0 Stereo] 19: It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big...I Am So Small...Do I Stand a C 20: Mr. Ambulance Driver [2.0 Stereo] 21: Haven't Got a Clue [2.0 Stereo] 22: The W.A.N.D. [2.0 Stereo] 23: Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung [2.0 Stereo] 24: Goin' On [2.0 Stereo] 25: Why Does It End? [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 26: You Gotta Hold On [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 27: Your Face Can Tell the Future [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 28: The Gold in the Mountain of Our Madness [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 29: Time Travel?? Yes!! [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 30: Bohemian Rhapsody [2.0 Stereo][Outtake] 31: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion [2.0 Stereo][Version] 32: Goin' On [2.0 Stereo][Version] 33: Unmade Bed/No Quarter [2.0 Stereo][Version] 34: The Sound of Failure [2.0 Stereo][Version] 35: Vein of Stars [2.0 Stereo][Version] 36: Vein of Stars [2.0 Stereo][Version] 37: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song [2.0 Stereo] 38: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song [2.0 Stereo] 39: Mr. Ambulance Driver [2.0 Stereo] 40: The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song [2.0 Stereo] 41: The W.A.N.D. [2.0 Stereo][Mix] 42: 2006 Classen High Commencement Speech [5.1 Surroun [5.1 Surround]
Style.Categories	Noise Pop, Experimental Rock, Dream Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Alternative Pop/Rock

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