Embryonic (studio album) by The Flaming Lips

From teague 09/09/2021 16:29

The Flaming Lips wander around musically for 70 minutes.

Great album. It took a while to grow on me but I think it's a top 3 Lips album along with Soft Bulletin and Clouds taste metallic. Favorite songs are Watching the planets and the sparrow looks up at the machine

From LebowskiRams 07/19/2019 04:00

It's long, but it makes the most of nearly every second of every track. Excellent album.

From ExTeaSea 12/03/2018 16:33

Love I Can Be a Frog and I usually love experimental albums but honestly this one is kinda a mess. One of my least favorite Lips albums. Great album cover so I had high expectations. They made up for it with the wonderfully raw and dark The Terror, now that one really grew on me!

An extremely dense and head-spinning record with necessary calming moments. Can be very difficult to get into, but once you're in, "Embryonic" reveals itself as a deliciously dark treat unspooling itself very messily. A step-up from "Mystics" and quite an exciting shift into experimental rock territory not visited since 97's "Zaireeka".

A long 70 minutes stuffed with chaos and darkness... the overrall effect is suffocating in the best possible way. Murky melodies and quirky flourishes abound in typical Flaming Lips fashion, but it's probably not a record that I would come back to a lot because "Embryonic" just isn't a record to physically enjoy, although the production is undeniably impressive. Very much a successor to their last record "At War With the Mystics" in that they both sound great but have something noticeably missing that keeps them from entering the top tier of Flaming Lips records. Perhaps there's just no feeling of awe post-Yoshimi.

From JulianR 04/16/2018 04:08

Frickin wacky album. I just get this sense listening to it that even though its made on very similar instruments to many other albums, there has really never been anything similar to it that I have ever heard. Just the way the songs are constructed is so odd. I hear maybe traces of krautrock, and a bit of similarity to the more normal synthy stuff they have done on The Terror, but that's kindof the only tangible link to other music that it seems to have. Sometimes it works really well, others not so much. Hopefully I will be able to understand it more as I listen. The standout is probably Ego's Last Stand, though the bonus track UFOs Over Baghdad is pretty cool too, though more in their usual vein.

75/100 (Above Average)

From Komorebi-D 03/05/2017 05:52

I love the sparse, ambient, psych, kraut and harsh instrumentals permeated throughout, especially when paired with Wayne's beautiful crooning & the enigmatic but random sampling. 2009 was truly the year for neo-psychedelia and this is one of the best documents from that time.

A noisy and psychedelic album, embryonic, is Flaming Lips most challenging record to date. Obviously needs to be listened in one go, it features some great moments; convinced of the hex, is a great opener, watching the planets, is a great closing track and in between there are some wonderful cuts, especially in, I can be a frog, featuring Karen O from Yeah,yeah,yeahs. Great stuff.

A little slow at the beginning but once you hit If the album really takes off. Lots of great tracks on this one. The chaos and out of control psychedelic style definitely makes this one of the Lip's bests works.