The Flaming Lips
Fight Test EP

Preliminary note: the title of the review (and I imagine the CD cover shown at the beginning) refers to Fight Test EP, but these lines contain an opinion about three among EPs and Album Singles released in recent years by the Flaming Lips. The rating is cumulative.

Wondering at the scope of my experience
Cautious so not to be cold
Caught up in the comfort of what I once was
Lost in all the brand new possibility
Oh to be
In the middle
Happy on the pull of the past
Just before the future comes
Hoping for the rush of some experience
That could elevate me
Now listen
I don't know the dimensions of outer space
But if our ability to feel love turns out to be just a cosmic accident
I'd like to think this means that the universe is on our side

I let myself be introduced by the opening words of "Up Above The Daily Hum" and "Sunship Balloons", to review, without lingering too much, the vices and virtues of three discs (one single and two EPs) that the Lips have released on the market after publishing Yoshimi, in order: Fight Test (EP), Do You Realize (Album Single), and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (EP).
For all three discs, I will not dwell on the tracks already contained in Yoshimi.

The first of the three is a very strange "almost album", certainly not completely coherent and successful, but perhaps precisely in these limitations, it preserves its points of interest. The first disorienting thing you find is a cover of "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" (yes, the famous "La, La, ..., La" by Kylie Minogue). The version is absolutely "nonsense Flaming Lips" with the rhythm completely absent compared to the original and a base of strings and percussion with great dramatic impact creating a "decadent" atmosphere around Wayne Coyne's "imploring" voice. Second twist (especially since it's preceded by such a pop anthem): "Knives Out" (yes, the very piece from the not simple Kid A by Radiohead). The Lips' version is "quite orthodox" but being recorded (it seems) live, it has a raw charm and is, in my opinion, more digestible than the one by Radiohead.
The last thing to note on the CD (besides The Strange Design Of Consciousness, a song with a spleen very similar to Ego Tripping...) is a song, it's not clear whether a mockery or a true homage, dedicated to Jack White (yes, the one from the White Stripes duo) with the lengthy title "Thank You Jack White For The Fiber Optic Jesus That You Gave Me". The most peculiar things in this track are Coyne's performance (the introductory part is spoken with a gunslinger-set voice over a country base; COUNTRY??) and the story told within it (I'd tell you what it's about, but I'm already going on).

Much more "serious" than Fight Test EP are the other two components of this ensemble.
The first of the two (Do You Realize - Album Single) has the enormous merit of containing one of the most evocative Lips' songs ever (if not the most evocative, at least in my opinion).
It's rare in my opinion to find a song where the lyrics and music can almost embrace in flight (the musical setting of this track is as soothing as one can imagine), as in this case, to describe an imaginary journey over the flow of our daily life, outside of time.
In front of this piece, even the very interesting soundtrack piece from Christmas on Mars at the end of the CD (with its disturbing sounds and echoes of Così Parlò Zarathustra by R. Strauss) takes a back seat.

And now let's move on, last but not least, to the last of the three "albums", Ego Tripping At The Gates of Hell EP and its "Sun Trilogy (at least that's what I call it).
This trilogy, opened by "Assassination of The Sun" (a very beautiful and well-arranged track but perhaps a "tad" conventional) is composed of three interrelated songs, with a dominant theme, the Sun. The tone is that of the tracks from The Soft Bulletin. In particular, the second track ("I'm a Fly in a Sunbeam", AKA "Following The Funeral Procession Of A Stranger", an instrumental) is surely reminiscent of Sleeping on The Roofs but in my opinion has something more disorienting and melancholic (if Ravel had collaborated with the Lips, he would have composed this piece). And above all, it's a splendid introduction to the emotional peak (again, in my opinion) of the CD: Sunship Balloons.
Have you ever heard a song that starts with Coyne reciting the words printed above immersed in a background vocal melody (wordless and sweet), continues rhythmically with a bass that feels like a frenzied balloon bouncing rhythmically everywhere, and that in all this imposes upon, for unknown reasons, a great sadness just by listening to it?
Well, if you want, you've found it.

Until next time.
I swear I wanted to be shorter.
Oh, by the way, the last EP also contains a Christmas song, but we might talk about it next time.