Eclipsed Behind A Cloud

The Flaming Lips are by trade an extremely bizarre band. The band has a history of acid soaked screwed up punk/psychedelic/noise/rock rivaled only by the infamous Meat Puppets. Singer/guitar player Wayne Coyne along with Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins are far happier outside the limelight and slowly have perfected their folk/noise over the years. That said, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a brilliant work that highlights their educated balance between the groundbreaking eclectic and serenely peaceful.

Yoshimi plays as a loose concept album with Coyne musing over a magnetic girl who has captured his heart that works for the city and fights evil pink robots. Silly at a glance perhaps, but the fantasy landscape Coyne and Co. revel in is actually wonderful poetic notions on how better to survive real life. On Fight Test Coyne challenges himself to fight for what he desires and on Do You Realize he lectures of how happiness and sadness are like setting and rising of the sun. Dreamy and scary, weird and inspiring Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a tour de force showing what a band with truly daring ideas on music can do when they limit themselves just right.