The Flaming Lips have announced tour dates for Spring 2017. But not wanting to leave their fans feeling disappointed, the announcement was accompanied by a colorful yet simplistic music video for their new song titled “The Castle”.

The video starts off with an angle that doesn’t include anything in the frame beside the young girl who begins to move her long blonde hair behind her shoulders as the music starts to play. As soon as the beat drops an unexpected splash of animation of red and blue appears on screen on the girl’s hair. As a viewer, you can immediately see the time that was put into the video because some of the animation at times is in sync with the beat. A radiant red and yellow sun repeatedly flash on screen to enhance the viewer’s experience.

As the lyrics, “Her eyes were butterflies” are sung the direction of the animation is pointed tour wards the young girl’s eyes going from reds and yellows to yellow, pink, and turquoise and eventually morphing into butterflies flying from her eyes. This a very complementary lyric about someone’s eyes. The choice of very bright colors and the use of a butterfly flying way is an interesting use of symbolism. This is followed up by the lyric, “Her smile is a rainbow”, similar to the previous lyric, all of the colors of the rainbow appear on her teeth as she smiles.

Sticking to the already established theme of the video, when The Flaming Lips sing about a girl’s hair the sun appears followed by a hallow above the young woman’s hair to symbolize it was as bright as a hallow. This attention to detail can be seen throughout the video. The attention to detail goes right along with the content of the song because it is a song dedicated to paying attention to the details of a girl and showering her with wonderful compliments. The Flaming Lips present an easily relatable concept of being so interested in someone that they just capture all of your attention. The creativity just begins to pour out of you like a High School boy who finally finds the confidence to speak to the prettiest girl in his Trigonometry class and everything he felt he would never say out loud just comes out naturally.

UPDATE (11/29): Experimental hip-hop collective clipping. have been announced as openers for a portion of The Flaming Lips Spring 2017 tour. See the dates below.

Purchase tickets for their upcoming tour here:
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12/16 Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion
1/21 London, UK O2 – Brixton Academy
1/22 Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
1/24 Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
1/25 Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
1/26 Stockholm, Sweden – Munchen Brewery
1/28 Utrecht, Holland – Tivoli Vredenburg
1/30 Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
1/31 Zurich, Switzerland – Volkshaus
2/2 Paris, France – Le Bataclan
2/3 Antwerp, Belgium – De Roma
3/3 Boston, MA – House of Blues Boston *
3/4 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia *
3/5 Washington DC – 9:30 Club *
3/6 Washington DC – 9:30 Club *
3/8 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall *
3/9 New York, NY – Terminal 5 *
3/11 Westbury, NY – The Westbury Theater *
3/13 Toronto, Canada – Rebel Complex *
3/14 Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre *
3/29 Nashville, TN – War Memorial Auditorium *
3/30 Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte *
3/31 Raliegh, NC – The Ritz *
4/2 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle *
4/3 Orlando, FL – House of Blues Orlando *
4/4 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live *
4/17 Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre *
4/19 Grand Rapids, MI – 20 Monroe Live *
4/21 Madison, WI – The Orpheum Theater *
4/23 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant *
6/30 Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain – Vida Festival