So, way back in da late eighties, before indie an' corporate rock finally got married durin' Cobain's shotgun weddin' I used ta go see a lot o' indie bands, some were good an' da bad ones were even better since dey gave me tips on how ta torture souls wif really bad music. One of da bands who were borderline was Da Flamin' Lips. (I could go on here an' rant about bands like Galaxie 500 who were better but ignored but well I haves... oh well.)

I had a copy of Telepathic Surgery and In a Priest Driven ambulance, but I was never too keen on dem, dough some of da songs were great. So I ignored da Flamin' Lips until fairly recently where I gave their later albums a fair hearin' an' pronounced dem... "alright."

Dis is faint praise ye understand, to me Muse is alright, alright just means it don't get me hackles up so much dat I wanna commit atrocities against da band and dere fans families record companies, producers etc.  I won't actively complain, but given da choice I'd not listen to dem.

So imagine how surprised I was by Embryonic. Dis album is a super noisy mutant bastard foetus concieved when Joy Division, Can, Air and Suicide has a saucy gangbang in Wayne Coyne's brain. It's great! From da openin' "Convinced of Da Hex" onwards we is not in da usual uplifitin' pop philosophic territory dat da Flamin' Lips have inhabited for a long while, dis album is downbeat, abrasive and beautiful all at da same time. Wif guest appearances by Karen O (who literally seems to have phoned it in) and MGMT (for some odd reason) dis is one of dem albums dat I can listen to an' go, ye knows in ten years I'll still be listenin' to dis.

So well done Da Flamin' Lips, I'd never have guessed ye could have pulled dis off but am glad ye did.

Nine fumbs up outta 10.