American Head
| The Flaming Lips
American Head
American Head is the sixteenth studio album by experimental rock band The Flaming Lips, released on September 11, 2020, on Warner Records in the US and Bella Union in the UK. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Pitchfork
At the top of their fifth decade, the Lips rekindle their past romance with Neil Young’s piano ballads, the Beatles’ psychedelic guitar tones, and Bowie’s stargazing anthems on a deeply personal album.
-
NME
‘American Head’ is a soft, reflective moment of taking in and appreciating the vista once the trip has worn off – when king’s heads and evil pink robots have melted away – and the dust has settled.
-
Slant Magazine
It’s quintessential Coyne: a simultaneous reminder of humanity’s fragility and a celebration of its resilience.
-
The Times
The Oklahoma band have made a hallucinogenic epic about the other side of the American dream, and it’s their best album since their 1999 masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin. By taking difficult subjects and turning them into something beautiful, they also create something strangely moving.
-
Clash Magazine
Nevertheless, if you were planning on taking a big bag of mushrooms and gazing at the stars tonight, well, then music doesn’t get much better than this.
-
Backseat Mafia
American Head is a trippy coming of age about coming of age - there's almost, almost some middle-ground intent in the straight-bat autobiographical nature.
-
Paste Magazine
The psych-rock band flirts with country-inspired psychedelia on a muddled and disappointing 16th album.
-
The Rice Thresher
“American Head” is something unique that delves deep into the American psyche while embracing the band’s personal experiences.
-
The Guardian
The American art-rockers try to revisit commercial highs, but their cliches fail to convince.
-
The Spokesman Review
“American Head” is a marvelous achievement of lyrical and musical composition, an album that captures everything elegant about the Flaming Lips’ long career in rock. The Lips’ latest is a feel-much masterpiece of simple storytelling and atmospheric composition.
-
Under the Radar Magazine
The album has a slow chain drive narrative to it that feels as close to a recounting as anything the group has done. And there is a certain comfort in settling in for the album’s nearly hour-long journey to the before and the beyond. With things decidedly on the decline here on the Big Blue Marble, you can’t blame Coyne for packing up his memories and seeking fairer shores.
-
meaww
'American Head' has a lot to offer without any pretentiousness. It is an album that dwells in its own emotional artistry rather than trying to be too serious or dramatic and if you enjoy classic psychedelic rock we highly recommend it.
-
The Fire Note
16 albums in, it’s great to hear they still have it in them.
-
musicOMH
And whilst it’s not quite in the same league as many of The Flaming Lips’ albums – not just The Soft Bulletin – it has plenty of worthy moments that can blossom in time.
-
DIY Magazine
It may not get your feet moving but it’ll tug at the heartstrings.
-
Vinous
American Head will rank among the best albums of 2020.
-
All Music
Far from a rehash of the band's previous glories, American Head feels transformational; at once magical and down-to-earth, it's the album the Flaming Lips needed to make and fans needed to hear at this point in their career.
-
Stereoboard
As profound as it is pure, ‘American Head’ is equal parts an exploration of sound and an evolving emotional psyche. Unlocking our own minds with that reliable Flaming Lips eccentricity, it lifts us to the stratosphere. Feelings are conveyed, and in turn we are able to feel them back.
-
Ultimate Guitar
On their latest concept album, The Flaming Lips use their most lush and gorgeous psychedelic sound in ages for some starkly personal and emotional imagery.
-
London Evening Standard
It’s the highlight of a productive period for The Flaming Lips (American Head is the band’s third album in 14 months if you count side project Deap Lips) and another memorable moment from a group that seems to be getting better with time.
-
Herald Scotland
it's fair to say the album as a whole will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy, but maybe without some of the ecstatic heights of their earlier work.
-
mxdwn music
Despite its issues, American Head is absolutely worth the listen, if not for the key emotional beats it hits, then the complete mastery of musical experimentation.
-
The Student Playlist
A conscious re-tread of the whimsical psychedelia that established The Flaming Lips in the mainstream 20 years ago, ‘American Head’ is a qualified triumph.
-
Brooklyn Vegan
American Head is their most satisfying record since at least Embryonic and is quite an accomplishment for any band coming up on 40 years in existence.
-
Circuit Sweet
American Head is an ode to life and the experience that comes with it and the sounds on here adhere to things that have shaped Coyne and the Flaming Lips throughout their history and this results in a brilliant and triumphant celebration of life manifested in a collection of music that sounds like a dream and is an all-consuming and joyous listen that will rightly stand as up there with the best albums that Flaming Lips have ever made, if not the best, it’s that good.
-
Whip
American Head stands squarely in the territory of a knockout success. Color no one surprised.
-
Vinyl Chapters
American Head is a resounding triumph, representing both a most satisfying homecoming for grizzled veterans about to enter their fourth decade as a band and their most dazzlingly consistent product since the early 2000’s. With this, their third album in their own right in four years, the Flaming Lips appear to be accelerating rather than easing their way into their final act: it is simply awe-inducing.
-
Ultimate Guitar
"American Head" is a fantastic record that brings a lot of the band's older influences back to the forefront, while still retaining the experimentation that's set them apart from their peers for the past three decades.
-
The Needle Drop
The Flaming Lips bounce back from a hit-and-miss decade with a lush and ironically sobering concept album.
-
The Line of Best Fit
Stately, sorrowful yet somehow also undeniably uplifting, American Head is a rare concept album that actually coheres as a narrative, but can just as easily (but less rewardingly, perhaps) be enjoyed as simply a set of the band’s most potent and moving tunes since the early '00s.
-
The Digital Fix
American Head couldn’t have come at a better time. Its stories are sometimes heavy, but zoning out in the comfort of your own bubble, you could genuinely believe that The Flaming Lips have the power to change the world.
-
Golden Plec
The lockdown of this last few months may well be to blame for the wistful wonder and inward gazing of ‘American Head’ and if so, it’s one of the more welcome by-products of the pandemic.
-
Giglist
A close-to-home reflection on youth and ageing, American Head sees psychedelic mainstays Flaming Lips grounded in introspection, and it holds up against any of their previous astral canon.
-
PopMatters
American Head's individual tracks can be enjoyed separately, but the album is best enjoyed as a whole. Think of it as a meditation on family, friends, getting older, and the irony of feeling lost in the world the more one learns about it. It's a trip, a journey to the past that one doesn't want to return to but never wants to forget.
-
The Reflector
I loved this album and will definitely be giving it another listen very soon. It must be said, however, that there are some songs that stand out more than others, as well as some songs that sound as if they could be on any other Flaming Lips album. Despite those flaws, I wouldn’t change a thing about this album. This is a record meant to be listened to in its entirety.
-
Sungenre
American Head feels like the record equivalent of catching an offspring smoking a cigarette and making them smoke the whole box to appreciate the devastating effects of what was once so sweet a hit. Presented in tragic earnest, Wayne Coyne delivers some of his most moving compositions and moralistic missives that’s replete with symbolism and enough of the band’s stapled experimentation to keep fans keen. The Lips hereby cement their significance for another decade, not that it was ever in doubt.
-
Commmedia
Riding a high of steady releases, The Flaming Lips are back with their 16th studio album, “American Head,” another compelling record to add to their impressive discography.
-
Narc Magazine
American Head certainly contains some of their greatest triumphs. Conjuring up enormous sounds with exquisite and tangible emotion bleeding from them, the highs of the record deliver the cryptic genius that fans have been craving for years, albeit inconsistently.
-
The Indiependent
The lengthy album of thirteen songs is an extremely thoughtful album that is most definitely up there with The Flaming Lips’ other fan favourite albums. Albeit less overtly euphoric than previous ventures, the latest venture is a dreamy, psychedelic insight into American heads.
-
Sputnik Music
It is definitely the work of a veteran act that learned how to evolve their sound and incorporate the past into it too. Luckily, they have reached another high point in their volatile career, continuing to move forward.
-
Treblezine
American Head is a curious effort from the ever-weird maestros of American psychedelic rock.The Flaming Lips have been making music for 36 years and in all that time little equals the music of American Head.
-
The Daily Californian
The Flaming Lips’ ‘American Head’ is sobering tragedy.
-
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Flaming Lips' new album isn’t just provocative — it’s really good.
-
Our Culture Magazine
More than a thin collection of melancholic ballads, there’s a clear narrative progression running throughout American Head, which makes it feel both purposeful and compelling.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments