Hit to Death in the Future Head

by

The Flaming Lips

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The Flaming Lips' fifth album, Hit to Death in the Future Head, is, to start, a surprisingly coherent and brilliant album from a

time in the Lips' musical career when they were still transitioning from something like alternative grunge to electronic pop. It gives a tantalizing taste of the care-free subjects of their next album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, while mixing some of the left-over grunge from In a Priest Driven Ambulance with an overall mellower sound similar to that of more recent albums. However, by no means should this be mistaken for one of their latest works. It bears little or no resemblance to the oft-loved and emotional Soft Bulletin, nor to the experimental Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It is unique in its own right, as a little-known hybrid of changing styles in the middle of the Flaming Lips career.

This fact becomes readily apparent in songs like "Gingerale Afternoon," an amazingly laid-back tune (despite its apparent speed) that sparks memories of nostalgic summers, and the most impressive work on the album "Halloween on the Barbary Coast," a deceptively smooth song that hides brash and noisy chords reminiscent of Lips' previous albums. Though many of the songs here have apparent differences in subject matter, they seem to have an overlying blanket of similar song character, and they compliment each other well. For instance, the unhurried and majestic "The Sun" makes for a very good lead into the almost overly-calm and slow f***-it-all "Felt Good to Burn." One song just gets you in the mood for another.

Interestingly, throughout much of Hit to Death in the Future Head, Coyne's trademark slightly off-key and quirky singing style from earlier albums is gone, replaced by a much calmer and dignified voice. In all truth, his vocals sound oddly similar to Bob Dylan's. Whether or not this is a good thing, however, depends upon your taste in music. By taking such a large departure vocally from the last album, you may find yourself dismayed by this change, or, possibly, pleasantly surprised. That's not to say that his voice is always like this ("The Magician vs. the Headache" is a notable exception), but it certainly feels this way in some of the slower songs in the album, like the previously-stated "The Sun" and "Felt Good to Burn," which in a strange way end up feeling like songs by Bob Dylan being covered by the Flaming Lips.

As a side note, this was one of the final albums in which the Flaming Lips was a four member band. Their fourth member, guitarist Jonathan Donahue, whose very noisy and bizarre guitar work made Hit to Death in the Future Head and the more critically successful In a Priest Driven Ambulance arguably some of the Lips' most memorable work, left almost immediately after the release of this album to pursue his own musical career. He was replaced by Ronald Jones for the next two albums, who then himself left the band, reportedly having suffered from paranoia and severe agoraphobia.

However, the album is not without its problems. The vocals are almost all un-listenably distant; whether this is purposeful or just a product of a poor recording studio at the time is uncertain. Also, anyone who started at either spectrum of the Flaming Lips career, either with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Soft Bulletin, or Hear it Is might be put off by just how different is from either of them. The Flaming Lips have been an amazingly adaptable band throughout their lifetime; their beginning works and more recent are near polar opposites. If you have started at one extreme end of their career, it would probably be advisable to just work you way in one direction, one album at time so as to make the transition between musical styles less abrupt.

With this album the Flaming Lips have once again displayed their seemingly endless ability to completely revamp themselves from release to release. This over-looked classic is must-own for any Lips fan, and may just be the right place to start for those looking to discover all that their music has to offer.

Landing somewhere in the middle of The Flaming Lips' catalog is "Hit To Death In The Future Head," which has long felt like a transitional album in their continual chameleon-like career. The shift seems to be in a move away from the acidic psychedelia into psychedelic Beach Boys. Kinda like goodbye Sonic Youth, hello Beatles' White Album. This most easily found as the lazy roll of "The Sun" or the peppier, undeniably catchy "Gingerale Afternoon." Wayne Coyne is also exploring the possibilities of his singing voice; this is the first Lips CD where his singing really shines all they way through.

It may be also worth noting that "Hit" was the last Lips album to feature guitarist Jonathan Donahue and drummer Nathan Roberts were aboard. Donahue contributes plenty of guitar freakouts, like on "Frogs" and "The Magician Versus The Headache," along with all the whacked out sounds mixed into the CD's half-hour "bonus" track of cacophony. (Shades of 1997's Zaireeka, anyone?) There are plenty of epic moments to be found here, but the follow-up album was the powerful "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart," the Lips' artistic and commercial breakthrough. As such, "Hit" is a cool listen, but not the place to start of you want to discover why Flaming Lips can be such a magic band.