The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody: Album Review

Pronounced “Ox-ie Mel-o-die”. I had to google it.

Bizarre psych rock band, and gateway hipster trash The Flaming Lips have released another album. Taking time out of their busy schedules containing (I’m certain) long debates as to why vinyl is better than digital, and how there’s just nothing like a physical book over an e-reader, The Flaming Lips have delivered a sweet, melo album, that delivers what it promises.

I’m no die-hard fan of The Flaming Lips, but I’ve always appreciated their efforts. Specifically, I’ve always appreciated how the band never feels like they’re trying too hard to achieve their desired effect. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, for instance, was all about creating this relaxing atmosphere, while showing off some more complex instrumentation, using subtle electronic elements to give it a sci-fi feel. When the band wants you to be in this dream-like state and present an album that puts you into a relaxed mood, you get Oczy Mlody.

Oczy Mlody is a different album than most of The Flaming Lips’ discography. It actually ends up sounding more like an electronic pop record rather than any sort of psych rock record. There’s pretty much no guitars to be found, but lots of bass and synth drums to carry a beat. But therein lies the hidden joy of Oczy Mlody: with so little to get in the way, the true psychedelic nature of the music can truly spread its’ wings. This album is filled to the brim with odd sound effects, reverb, echoes and noise, turning this album into an atmospheric wonderland. The key difference between The Flaming Lips and the majority of psych rock, and why I enjoyed this particular record so much, is because when these effects do kick in (and they pretty much dominate the record from moment 0) they’re crafted around the steady beat rather than being shown off, so the result is an album that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to blind me with bullshit. Instead of becoming pretentious noise that wants to force me into a mindset of “isn’t this weird??? Aren’t you getting high off our cool sounds???”, The Flaming Lips lets the music and the sounds do the talking. The heavy electronic sounds on Oczy Mlody are constantly creating an atmospheric experience that is always engaging and entertaining.

I came out of Oczy Mlody feeling cozy. And really, that’s what this album is. It’s not a heart-pounding concept album about the invasion of aliens, it’s not an hour long space rock epic, it’s just a cozy album that gets you in a relaxed mood, and by the end you just feel good. It’s easy to see myself sitting in the dark after a long day at work and just throwing on this record to decompress.

Now as for more negative criticisms, I’m having a hard time coming up with any serious negatives. I have some nitpicks, sure. The more heavy distorted sounds on “We A Family” don’t flow with the cleaner moments as well as the album wants it to (even though Miley Cyrus’s guest spot is terrifically used), the opening track doesn’t really do much with the sounds it's using, kind of creating a wall of sound that the rest of the LP does good to avoid, very minor stuff.

The only thing I can really conceive of is that some people may just find this album boring, longing for the second when The Flaming Lips finally put away the sound board and pick up a guitar to do some more traditional indie rock tracks. Sadly, there isn’t much to satisfy the adrenaline junky, but I did lament how the track "Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes”, dips into a more progressive space rock style with more emphasis on the bass guitar and some guitar coming back, and it just blends the two flavors so well together I was kind of curious why there weren’t more daring tracks like this on the LP. And lastly, the songs occasionally come off as repetitive, as the beat for every track is very similar to one another, with little to no variation throughout the song.

In the end, I really enjoyed Oczy Mlody. It’s not the most complex or dynamic record that The Flaming Lips have ever put out, but it’s one I really enjoyed even if it was only for the amazing sense of calm and serenity it brought me.

8/10