For Record Store Day 2013, April 20th, the experimental rock group The Flaming Lips re-released their 1997 album, Zaireeka, on vinyl.
For those of you unfamiliar with the logistics of listening to this masterpiece of the bizarre, you should note requires four, yes four, CD players, and multiple speakers to be heard in full. The CDs are to be played simultaneously in order to get the full effect of the album—trying different combinations of each disc is worth a listen as well, though. The album moves back and forth between surreal, atmospheric harmonies and utter dissonance in melody and instrumentation. But even in its moments of dissonance, it is a beautiful, heady work of art.
Musically, Zaireeka is a step up from the Lips’ previous releases. With this album came the departure from guitar-driven psych-pop and the emergence of layers of strings, keyboards and synthesizers on top of basic rock musicianship. In a way, Zaireeka is The Flaming Lips’ Revolver. The drums and percussion on this album are flawless. And man, are they loud. Prepare for bleeding ears upon pressing play; the first track is a glorious assault to the senses. What follows is a jazzy bassline and an ethereal howling from ring leader Wayne Coyne.
Zaireeka takes the listener on a roller coaster ride of angelic peaks and disconcerting valleys, including a song devoted to extremely high and extremely low frequencies, thought to initiate “psychic premonitions.” It is that sort of musical ingenuity any Billboard countdown or radio station would thumb their nose at, yet it’s also that sort of musical ingenuity that has allowed more than one generation of individuals to love psychedelic music regardless of what form it has taken, whether that is alternative, pop, rock or even rap.
Zaireeka’s developed lyricism similarly provides the perfect parallel to their shift in sound. On “Riding To Work In The Year 2025” we see the band lyrically delve deeper into the genre of science fiction, a precursor to 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’ themes. Yet they don’t abandon their playful nature, as “A Machine In India” specifically deals with Coyne’s wife’s menstrual cycle. “Thirty Five Thousand Feet Of Despair” tells the tragic tale of a pilot committing suicide mid-air. Lyrically minimal, the tone and story of the song is developed almost inherently for the listener. The closing track, “The Big Ol’ Bug Is The New Baby Now” is a spoken monologue dealing with the fickle nature of “choosing favorites,” told through an anecdotal tale about dogs (haha, get it, tale?) layered over utterly haunting melodies walls of swirling sound.
This album is an essential milestone in The Flaming Lips’ career, and should be viewed as such. Listening to 1995’s Clouds Taste Metallic, a personal favorite, and then listening to Zaireeka is like viewing opposite sides of the same coin. Zaireeka is the turning point in the Lips’ career that established their place as both a heady, experimental rock group, but also as a fun, listenable and likeable band. Even through their eccentricities and grand projects put them in a league all their own, it would be difficult to argue this band as untouchable or unapproachable.
As the band re-released their pivotal album alongside a new record titled The Terror, listening to Zaireeka would certainly provide a good vantage point for an individual who is just getting into The Flaming Lips. It is the exact moment that they became the band they are today.
Rating : A
