The Flaming Lips – American Head (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Flaming Lips – American Head (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:42 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Acid Rock, Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Bella Union

American Legends The Flaming Lips release their 21st studio album, American Head via Bella Union. The album is comprised of thirteen new cinematic tracks, produced by longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Lips. Among them, God and the Policeman featuring backing vocals from country superstar Kasey Musgraves. American Head takes on a welcome temporal shift that occupies a similar space to that of The Soft Bulletin or Yoshmi Battles the Pink Robots and just may be their most beautiful and consistent work to date.

The Flaming Lips’ catalog includes songs about pink robots invading the planet and drummer Steven Drozd’s lie about a staph infection in his hand (it was heroin-related, not a spider bite). But the band may have topped their usual out-there factor with American Head, their 16th album. Written after the 2017 death of Tom Petty, it’s a fantasy concept: imagined lost songs recorded by Petty and his early ’70s band Mudcrutch, if they’d taken drugs supplied by Lips frontman Wayne Coyne’s brother’s drug-dealing friends. It also weaves in Coyne’s own memories of his youth in Tulsa, OK. If you can suspend your disbelief—and if you’re listening to a Flaming Lips record, that likely isn’t a problem—it’s a free-floating trip of spaced-out bliss. All that floatiness means it’s not their catchiest (and this is a band capable of writing a killer hook). But it is lovely, laden with emotionally charged strings and Drozd’s commanding percussion. “Will You Return When You Come Down” layers dreamy harmonies and lush piano with earthy guitar and Coyne’s trademark wavering warble. “Flowers of Neptune 6” is a hazy celebration of acid experimentation. Admitted LSD fan Kacey Musgraves lends guest vocals to that track as well as “Watching the Light-bugs Glow”; low in the mix, she can be heard talking about one of her own trips. There are two truly epic moments. “Mother I’ve Taken LSD” is a Syd Barrett-esque ballad—majestic drums, sweeping strings—about Coyne’s older brother telling their mom he’d taken acid, and how much this scared a young Coyne. “Mother Please Don’t Be Sad” is about Coyne working as a fry cook at Long John Silver’s and being held up at gunpoint—and imagining his mom getting the news that he’d died. And it is, against all odds, absolutely gorgeous. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1. The Flaming Lips – Will You Return / When You Come Down (05:21)
2. The Flaming Lips – Watching the Lightbugs Glow (02:53)
3. The Flaming Lips – Flowers of Neptune 6 (04:30)
4. The Flaming Lips – Dinosaurs on the Mountain (03:38)
5. The Flaming Lips – At the Movies on Quaaludes (03:41)
6. The Flaming Lips – Mother I’ve Taken LSD (03:48)
7. The Flaming Lips – Brother Eye (04:23)
8. The Flaming Lips – You n Me Sellin’ Weed (04:56)
9. The Flaming Lips – Mother Please Don’t Be Sad (03:35)
10. The Flaming Lips – When We Die When We’re High (03:39)
11. The Flaming Lips – Assassins of Youth (04:12)
12. The Flaming Lips – God and the Policeman (feat. Kacey Musgraves) (02:28)
13. The Flaming Lips – My Religion Is You (03:33)

Download: