[rating=2.50]
This is a huge organic blob of an album. The Flaming Lips have never been shy about their grandiose tendencies (Zaireeka) and this one flashes them all, making it impossible to absorb upon the first few listens. Embryonic is a double disk in a day in age when singles seem to be clocking in at less than 2 minutes, a bit out of place in the time realm, but smack dab on the cutting edge when it comes to the music. Chock full of sound Embryonic bombards the listener with twitches and musical gleeks over distorted drums strings and chimes. It is an audio genetic soup in there, and that’s what the album seems to be getting at.
Wayne Coyne and company have constructed this sprawling mass with the desire to break down barriers between Man/Nature-Death/Life-Processed/Natural-Id/Ego/Super-Ego-Past/Present/Future, while constantly questioning the oneness of everything; existence itself. Or maybe it’s about a really good omelet…either way the songs skitter in a tripped out shuffle all over the place before bleeding into each other.
“Convinced of the Hex” puts the keys and backbeat into overdrive behind a monotone vocal chant from Coyne. “Evil” is a snails crawl lament of loss, bass bombs and violins color “See The Leaves”, and “Powerless” is an middle eastern flavored seven minute march. “The Ego’s Last Stand” and “Worm Mountain” both get super heavy with layers of noise before soothing with clean vocals on the first, and strings on the second. “Silver Trembling Hands” has potential with screeches and pulsing low end, but finishes before making a major impact. There are schizophrenic instrumentals (“Aquarius Sabotage”, “Scorpio Sword”) and soothing ones (“Gemini Syringe”) that, along with some buried spoken word pieces, act as connecters between tunes.
There is a distinct aura linking all the tracks on this album but there are no highlight songs and Embryonic will not draw in new listeners like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots or The Soft Bulletin. Embryonic is all about setting a mood and meditating on it, making the listener dive headlong into the bizarre world of the Lips; who knows what one will find once in there.
