This is the first double album the band has ever done. Embryonic does differ from some of the bands previous work, such as Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and The Soft Bullitin, but it is still true to the band's nature.
The first part of the album honestly isn't that different from the second, to me. To me, a double album is typically a light vs. dark sort of thing, there might not be a polar opposite between the discs, but there is usually something noticable. But then again, it's my impression that this is a double album for the sake of being a double album. In an interview, Wayne Coyne said "Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that we should do a double album... Just this idea that you can weave a couple of themes into there and you can sprawl a little bit." If you're wondering who Wayne Coyne is, shame on you.
While listening to Embryonic, I could hear themes from a number of different Flaming Lips albums. Some parts of some songs made me think back to the Soft Bulletin, others reminded me of At War With The Mystics, and so on. And I really like how expansive the album is. Not that the Flaming Lips have ever had limitations in their sounds, variety is always really cool.
Overall, the album is a free-for-all, there isn't much apparently structure from one song to the next, but then again, who says there has to be? The new record is just numerous bits and pieces of the band. I for one really like the fact that they're not trying to stick to one sound, as bands typically do on one album. I honestly would like to see more bands willing to be so bold.
A few of the songs do have some guest vocals. One of the vocalists is Dr. Thorsten Wörmann,a German mathematician. He speaks over instrumentals in such a way to really extenuate the song. I'm personally a sucker for songs that pull off background spoken word segments, so maybe I'm just a tad biased towards liking that. Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs also does some guest vocals, and her voice compliments Wayne's wonderfully. "I Can Be A Frog" is one song where she vocalizes the number of animals Wayne describes in the song in a way that can only be described as fun. MGMT are featured on the song "Worm Mountain."
I really like this album. It has a great mood to it, it's fun, it's honestly everything I've come to expect from the band. The Flaming Lips are a wonderful band. They're completely uninhibited in what they do, and I feel that makes for an amazing album. I would say my favorite tracks are "Aquarius Sabotage" and "I Can Be A Frog."
The album is available in a special edition, and I would definitely recommend it. The special edition has both CDs and a DVD that has the entire album in superior audio. And I don't know about you, but the Flaming Lips are just one of those bands that you need to hear in the best quality you can. It also comes in a unique packaging, with a furry cover. A lithograph is also included. This edition is quite limited, so if you'd like to purchase it, you can do so here.
The band has performed the song "Convicted of the Hex" on the Colbert Report and just this week, performed "Watching the Planets" on the Conan O'Brien show. See the videos at the bottom of the page.
So conclusion. This album is awesome, easily a 5 out of 5. It is definitely worth checking out, whether you've been a fan for years or this is the first you've heard of the band.
"Convicted of the Hex"
"Watching the Planets"
And a bonus...the music video for "I Can Be A Frog"
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