Embryonic
| Flaming Lips
Embryonic
Embryonic is the twelfth studio album by experimental rock band The Flaming Lips released on October 13, 2009 on Warner Bros. The band's first double album, it was released to generally positive reviews. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
In a shocking turn, the Flaming Lips offer their most audacious undertaking since Zaireeka, an unrelentingly paranoid, static-soaked acid-rock epic.
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The Guardian
Embryonic genuinely is hard work. Everything is buried beneath layers of distortion. The gloriously lush, enveloping arrangements of The Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots have been largely boiled down to bass, percussion and the odd electronic effect.
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Sputnik Music
Embryonic, however, takes all the conventions and songwriting chops they’ve perfected over their last few albums and throws them right down the garbage disposal.
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Tiny Mixtapes
what The Flaming Lips have accomplished with Embryonic is impossible to ignore: an ambitious double album in an age where the single is making a comeback, a collection of music that makes a 25-year-old band sound vital and new.
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IGN
To say Embryonic, the twelfth studio album by experimental rockers The Flaming Lips, is an enjoyable listen, would do it a disservice. In fact, it's an exercise in aural stamina, but one that rewards in spades for those who can appreciate its musical genius.
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Ezine Articles
This isn't the catchy "sing-a-long" Flaming Lips that you take home to meet your mom. This is the darker side of the band. The dirty side. And I think it's a real revelation!
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COS
It’s full of ups and downs, static atmospherics, and sonic kaleidoscopes, making it, at the least, their most psychedelic record to date.
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Slant
The Flaming Lips’s desire for creative freedom is admirable to a point, but Embryonic makes a strong case for the discipline and restraint they were working against.
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NME
Ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one.
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Clash
Always the outsiders, even as they headlined festivals and topped charts, The Flaming Lips have returned with a truly great piece of work, flawed though it may be. Fearless Freaks indeed.
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Prefix
At first spin, Embryonic feels like something of a new direction for the Lips, maybe allowing them some new ground to bury in confetti. But upon multiple listens, it becomes clear that Embryonic’s 18 tracks instead split the difference between the group’s last three albums.
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BBC
Embryonic may not sell as many copies or win as many converts as Bulletin or Yoshimi, but it’s another wonderful album – a veritable trove of speaker-pummelling delights – from the most consistently inventive and thrilling American band, R.E.M. included, of the last 25 years.
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Noripcord
Embryonic is a true 21st century freak-out and it’s only appropriate to end this decade with such an ambitious, intrepid undertaking.
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Los Angeles Times
At 18 tracks, though, "Embryonic" includes an awful lot of filler, much of it of the meandering-soundscape variety. That stuff isn't depressing -- it's just boring.
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Drowned in Sound
What it really all boils down to is your tolerance for lengthy psyche records, which is what Embyonic undoubtedly is. There is some extremely good music here, and it is hugely heartening to discover that a band whose success felt so deserved can so easily reconnect with their pre-fame spirit of adventure.
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Static and Feedback
The fact that an older band did this adds to the amazement level, but what shines brightest is the music. Bold, brash and unmerciful, it demands full attention and rewards the faithful.
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Snob's Music
guess I'm just going to have to face it, gone are the days when you could rely on the Flaming Lips to provide you with quirky, humorous pop songs. The forthcoming double album, Embryonic, may be the final nail in that coffin.
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The Scotsman
Embryonic is a titanic effort by most musicians' standards, but The Flaming Lips make it sound like their natural habitat.
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7th Level Music
It’s a lovely and creepy record. Facing truth can be frightening, but the Flaming Lips remind us that the reward at the end of such a journey is freedom and peace.
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The Record Review
Embryonic (Warner Bros) Always keeping things inspired and interesting, The Flaming Lips topped even themselves with their twelfth studio release. Reaching back into their neo-psychedelic past, Wayne Coyne and Co. turn in a collection of songs that are as haunting as there are melodic.
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Everything is Music
The Flaming Lips have finally given me Embryonic, which is the darkest album I’ve heard of theirs. It’s wicked and fucked up. It grooves. It just plain rocks. In my mind, it’s their masterpiece.
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Music OMH
This is a brisk, bright and joyful album from a band who have been anything but those things in recent years. It’s recommendable for those attributes alone, but even more so when you start to get the feeling that this could herald a return to form.
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Clash
Always the outsiders, even as they headlined festivals and topped charts, The Flaming Lips have returned with a truly great piece of work, flawed though it may be. Fearless Freaks indeed.
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Prefix
There’s been no going broad for cheap success (like U2) for the Flaming Lips, no fading into a parody of themselves (like the Rolling Stones), and no truly awful record. In 2009, the Flaming Lips are still as vital as they were in 1999 and 1989.
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Noripcord
Embryonic is a true 21st century freak-out and it’s only appropriate to end this decade with such an ambitious, intrepid undertaking.
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Los Angeles Times
"Embryonic" includes an awful lot of filler, much of it of the meandering-soundscape variety. That stuff isn't depressing -- it's just boring.
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Drowned in Sound
Embryonic’s biggest achievement is restoring the Flaming Lips’ unpredictability. The entertainer’s masks have fallen away – underneath there are madmen grinning.
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The Current
When I expected them to sell out, they made Embryonic, possibly the most challenging work they've delivered their current fan base at any given time in the band's career. I should have known better. With the Lips, it's best to expect nothing beyond something unexpected.
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Static and Feedback
This is beautiful, daring music, and it took guts to release it as-is. The best way to reward that effort is to put as much of yourself into listening to this as the Lips did in creating it. And it will always pay you back.
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Sound Opinions
They are rocking out again on Embryonic, and while they've done this sound before, and better, he gives the album a Buy It.
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Snob's Music
Alas, after exploring Embryonic if fear it may be time to give up the Flaming Lips.
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The Scotsman
All this, and Karen O impersonating wolves, Gila monsters and a whole menagerie on I Can Be A Frog. Embryonic is a titanic effort by most musicians' standards, but The Flaming Lips make it sound like their natural habitat.
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