Embryonic
by The Flaming Lips
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The Flaming Lips bestography
Embryonic is ranked 4th best out of 47 albums by The Flaming Lips on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Flaming Lips is Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots which is ranked number 116 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 10,821.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Embryonic on YouTube
Embryonic track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Embryonic rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | cicadelic | Lost At Sea: Best Albums 2009 | 10/25 | - |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 2009 | 16/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | bonnequestion | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 55/100 | 9 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 50 Music Albums of 2009 | 18/50 | 3 |
| 2026 |  cestuneblague | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 81/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  junodog4 | Top 20 Music Albums of 2009 | 7/20 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 60 Music Albums of 2009 | 35/60 | 2 |
| 2026 |  briggs54 | Top 75 Music Albums of 2009 | 4/75 | 5 |
| 2026 | bonnequestion | Best albums from '05 to '14 | 59/100 | - |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 62 Music Albums of 2009 | 57/62 | 0 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 298 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,201 | |||
Embryonic collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 148 members
Embryonic ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 374 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/24/2026 08:49 |  MrBrown | 391 | 80/100 |
| ! | 06/10/2026 04:21 | ecocruzr | 249 | 69/100 |
| ! | 03/10/2026 13:20 | mash | 1,498 | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.5/100, a mean average of 77.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.0.
Embryonic favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 42 members
Embryonic forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/05/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5395): By areminderView latest topic →
Purplepash 11/27/2024 11:37 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
Cytoma 02/25/2022 13:39 in What album are you listening to right now?View all forum mentions
Embryonic comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
SquishypuffDave TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/27/2011 11:54 | #19635 | TOP COMMENT
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This album is one ugly beast. I hated it when I first heard it. It's a heck of a lot darker than anything else The Flaming Lips have put out, but they pull it off SO WELL! Very krautrock/noise-rock influenced. It's also surprisingly their funniest lyrically.
Onetwo12 09/28/2011 23:24 | #27896 | TOP COMMENT
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Definitely not a a poor effort. It gets better with each listen.
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.
Komorebi-D 03/05/2017 05:52 | #186844 | TOP COMMENT
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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.
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