2012, Music

The Faming Lips and Heady Fwends (2012)

I want to make some kind of Supernatural joke but I can’t come up with one because I don’t watch the show.

I am all for pushing your creative boundaries, I think it is great that the Lips are being absolutely ridiculous with all these odd EPs and special releases. I won’t listen to most of it, but good for them for being ridiculous.

I don’t see this compilation of collaborations to be consistent because of the collaborators; it’s actually quite consistent, amazingly enough. My problem lies elsewhere.

This may sound weird, and it’s probably idiotic, but to me some of the tracks – the “rockers” to use really old parlance – they recorded sound to me like they are trying to write club songs, though for clubs that do not exist in our world, that I know of. (Keep in mind, I am exposed to club music only a couple times a year, when I am accidentally in the wrong bar, or at a particularly “hip” wedding.) That’s great that they are trying to expand their sound, but it does absolutely nothing for me on any level. In fact, I find it annoying, all those “beats”.

The ballads obviously don’t fit that ridiculous characterization, but their main flaw, in my mind, is that they almost all way too long. They just go on and on and on and I don’t know why.

That being said, just because I really don’t like this doesn’t mean that it’s bad, or that it isn’t at least a sign that they are still trying to keep things fresh (for themselves, anyway). This will likely be the Lips album I listen to least – if I ever find my way back to it – but at least they are not treading water.

6/10

  1.  “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)” featuring Kesha, Biz Markie & Hour of the Time Majesty 12 4:09
  2. “Ashes in the Air” featuring Bon Iver 6:13
  3. “Helping the Retarded to Know God” featuring Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros 7:03
  4. “Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee” featuring Prefuse 73 3:17
  5. “Children of the Moon” featuring Tame Impala 5:32
  6. “That Ain’t My Trip” featuring Jim James of My Morning Jacket 3:47
  7. “You, Man? Human???” featuring Nick Cave 3:34
  8. “I’m Working at NASA on Acid” featuring Lightning Bolt 7:59
  9. “Do It!” featuring Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band 3:28
  10. “Is David Bowie Dying?” featuring Neon Indian 6:36
  11. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (written by Ewan MacColl) featuring Erykah Badu 10:04
  12. “Girl, You’re So Weird” featuring New Fumes 3:21
  13. “Tasered and Maced” featuring Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory 2:43

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