Rating: NNNN
The Flaming Lips’ newest album, a collaboration with disparate musicians, got a limited-edition vinyl-only release in April for Record Store Day. Since then, it also got an unintended publicity boost when the XXX-rated video for The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, featuring a very naked Erykah Badu and her sister, had Badu in a tizzy. (She hadn’t approved the final edit, thought she was making “art,” not “smut,” etc.)
Anticipation has been high for the album’s official release, and Heady Fwends doesn’t disappoint. It’s plenty psychedelic (Is David Bowie Dying?, featuring Neon Indian, the trippy Badu song, which is a Roberta Flack cover) and surprisingly heavy at times (That Ain’t My Trip, featuring My Morning Jacket’s Jim James You Man, You Human??? featuring Nick Cave). It even transforms a few public personas: Ke$ha comes across as a little bit endearing and Bon Iver more unhinged.
Yoko Ono’s turn, however, proves she hasn’t mellowed with age, a great thing.
Top track: That Ain’t My Trip, featuring Jim James
