Album Review - Flaming Lips -: At War with the Mystics

The trouble with most reviews is that they make too many snap judgments on a work that they have likely listened to only once or twice. Albums that really matter to me are the ones i have ummed and ahhd over for weeks before i can be sure of my feelings. So what matters to me most is an album that i will still be plucking from the shelves in 2 years time. I have only listened to this album maybe 5 times and thankfully most of the songs are still fresh when i hear them again. Indeed with each listen i am discovering something new. Now here is where i must make a leap of faith - this album is a keeper. I can see myself now, my trembling hand outstretched, hovering over Mystics, Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin. Oh God which one? A furious game of eenee meenee ensues until, exhausted from the effort, i pluck the winner from its holding place and elatedly place it in the player and start doing my vocal warm ups. And this is another rousing sing along, you better believe it. Anybody can sing along with confidence to a Flaming Lips album, mostly because if you can keep a tune you are never really that far behind the faltered, strained vocals of the joyously uplifting Mr Coyne. Moronic reviewers keep mentioning Pink Floyd with these guys and im sorry but they are just surface scratchers. Listening to Mystics i am reminded of Original Soundtrack era 10CC or Sparks, ELO, Peter Frampton.. i could go on but i dont wish to rub it in, suffice to say I RULE. Now i will admit that this is not the Impressionist masterpiece that Yoshimi and Bulletin is. It does not flow anywhere near as effortlessly as that. Rather it lets the individual tracks stand on their own, there are really no segways nor links between the tracks. This does not mean it is inferior, however admittedly i do prefer an album that must be listened to as a whole rather than in parts. Perhaps it is my personal reaction to modern pop that makes me dislike the 'single' so much now. It implies an album fraught with filler. Either way i cant wait to put this album on at the moment and i cant ask for more than that. Whether it holds its own in years to come is up to the Gods..... or the pink robots. Whatever blows your skirt.

4 1/2 sparks