The 11 Best Flaming Lips Songs (Post-Embryonic)

The last official album to come out from The Flaming Lips was 2009's Embryonic.  A rich tapestry of psychedelic melodies that motivate the listener of a powerful cosmic propulsion.  In the four years since, they have been anything but sleeping on the job.  In that time, they have released 9 EPs.  Some of these EPs were distributed normally, some were released in a human skull or in a fetus made out of gummy candy...yes, really.  Along with the 9 EPs, they released a Pink Floyd cover album, a duets album, and an album of romantic songs inside a chocolate heart.  Besides distribution, song lengths wildly varied, from songs that are normal 3-4 minutes long to one that tops 6 hours...and one that takes a full 24 hours to listen to because...yes, it's 24 hours long.  The following list are the best songs of this chaotic yet creatively productive period.

Here are the 11 Best Flaming Lips Songs (Post-Embryonic):

1. Is David Bowie Dying (With Neon Indian)
2. Speak To Me / Breathe (Dark Side of the Moon)
3. Drug Chart (Gummy Song Skull)
4. Helping the Retarded To Find God (The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends)
5. Eclipse (Dark Side of the Moon) 
6. Heavy Star Moving... (With Prefuse 73)
7. I'm Working At NASA on Acid (With Lightning Bolt)
8. Atlas Eets Christmas (With Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band) 
9. Evil Minds (StroboTrip)
10. Children of the Moon (The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends)
11. 7 Skies H3 (24 Hour Song Skull)

Buy The Flaming Lips' The Terror...now!!

The Unknown: The Flaming Lips' Zaireeka

Most bands are happy with being homogenous. Making average songs in the average structure of verse chorus verse. But the Flaming Lips are not one of those bands. For years, they have always tried to push the boundaries of what's normal. Never happy with sounding like everyone else. Sometimes the result is amazing (Yoshimi)...other times you get Zaireeka.

Now don't get me wrong...Zaireeka is a pretty amazing album. But in 12 years...I've only listened to it twice. Why? Because it's extremely difficult to listen to. Zaireeka is actually four CDs...which are all to be played at the exact same time on four different CD players. The theory is that every time you listen...you will never get the same listening experience since you will never be able to push "play" on all four players at the same time. The objective was to create an album where every time you listened...the experience was different. The problem is (especially today) nobody owns four CD players. Before it was difficult to get four friends to bring together their CD players...now it's just plain impossible.

Here are the four channels for the third song from Zaireeka. I've compressed the file as well...to show that even though the listening experience was a bit bizarre...the music itself was still pretty good.

Zaireeks Track 3 - Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair

1. Channel 1
2. Channel 2
3. Channel 3
4. Channel 4
5. Compressed Track

Buy The Flaming Lips new album...Embryonic (with bonus tracks)...now!

The 111 Best Albums of the 00s (23-33)

The 111 Best Albums of the 00s (23-33):

23. The Shins - Oh, Inverted World (2001)
- Did you see Garden State? Enough said.

24. Outkast - Stankonia (2000)
- The only bad thing about this album is that it wasn't a double album.

25. The Killers - Hot Fuss (2004)
- Hands down the hardest rocking Mormons to ever come out of Las Vegas.

26. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)
- Album number 2 is louder, faster, stronger, bigger, braver, and better.
(New York I Love You)

27. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
- A concept album that isn't a concept album. Would expect something from the Flaming Lips to make sense?
(Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)

28. The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)
- Don't side projects usually suck?
(This Place Is a Prison)

29. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III (2008)
- Just because you're short and ugly doesn't mean you can't make good music.

30. Kanye West - Late Registration (2005)
- Just because you're loud and obnoxious doesn't mean you can't make good music.

31. Spoon - Gimme Fiction (2005)
- Do these guy know how to make bad music? (Sister Jack)

32. Johnny Cash - American IV: Man Comes Around (2002)
- F.U. Trent Reznor.

33. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me (2002)
- Who ever thought sappy piano ballads could be so good?

Buy these albums now.