Clouds Taste Metallic

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Taste the metallic clouds

It's hard not to like the Flaming Lips. These alt-rockers take such elaborate pleasure in being over-the-top weird that's impossible not to be sucked in. Wonderfully weird titles, complex music laced with unusual instruments, and a can't-be-copied sense of wonder make this one of the best albums to come out of the 90s.

From the hypnotic crackle of "Abandoned Hospital Ship," we soar into the lower-key "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles," the insanely lovely "Placebo Headwound" ("…

It's hard not to like the Flaming Lips. These alt-rockers take such elaborate pleasure in being over-the-top weird that's impossible not to be sucked in. Wonderfully weird titles, complex music laced with unusual instruments, and a can't-be-copied sense of wonder make this one of the best albums to come out of the 90s.

From the hypnotic crackle of "Abandoned Hospital Ship," we soar into the lower-key "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles," the insanely lovely "Placebo Headwound" ("Where does outer space end/ it's sort of hard to imagine"), the charmingly catchy "This Here Giraffe," the harder-edged "Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World" (isn't that the best title?), the more haunting "When You Smile," the delicious space-rock "They Punctured My Yolk," sizzling (no pun intended) "Lightning Strikes the Postman," and the thought-provoking, catchy "Christmas at the Zoo" ("Their wasn't any snow on Christmas eve/and I knew what I should do/I thought I'd free the animals all locked up at the zoo...")

You can tell an album is a winner if the lead singer informs you "It's just a supernatural delay." But this album is in a world of lightning-struck mailmen, talking animals, spaceships, outer space, dreams of shooting your boss, astronauts, and sparkling lights. The scifi-rock edge that was later further refined is here in its glory, tempered by more earthly material (like "Bad Days").

The brilliant basic music is enhanced by cymbals, screaming, bing-bang-booms, hums and buzzes and chimes. Anything that fits will somehow fit in. Wayne Coyne's voice is a little thin and flawed, but that only enhances the extraordinary music. The lyrics are determinedly weird and sometimes satirical, sometimes sad, sometimes very thought-provoking. But the entire album, welded together, has an aura of childlike wonder, an appreciation for the fantastical.

While "The Soft Bulletin" may remain the Flaming Lips' best album musically, "Clouds Taste Metallic" is a fantastic, playful psychedelic theme album, a sort of colorful space-rock. Highly recommended. It's an acid trip burned into a CD.

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Written by E. A Solinas "ea_solinas"

What's the matter, getting too old?

Worthy effort, still a fair amount of melody with a few songs that really stand out. But still by no means comparable with the previous albums, lacking those catchy and upbeat hard rock tunes that make you just want to keep listening to it over and over again. And it progressively gets worse after this, so unless you're into contemporary easy listening on the radio, do yourself a favor and make sure you don't get anything that was released after this album.

Written by 70s Punk Fan

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The Abandoned Hospital Ship