Album Review: Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

               Everybody knows that the Flaming Lips took acid.  But their acid usage apparently has reached an all time high with their most recent album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  One asks the question, “who is Yoshimi, and why the hell is he/she battling Pink Robots?”

            First of all, Yoshimi is a chick with a black belt in karate.  She's apparently the mortal enemy of the Pink Robots, and has been instructed to defeat them at all costs, as explained in the line from the song Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part I -- “you won’t let those robots defeat me.”  This concept carries through at least the first four songs on the album, before it gets lost somewhere and the rest of the album makes no sense whatsoever.

            Musically, this album is amazing.  It is obvious that the bassist got a new pedal for Christmas, and wanted to use it frequently (i.e. on every single song).  Furthermore, the Lips must have discovered interesting record producing techniques, for gratuitous, unknown, inexplicable sounds permeate the album.  Despite the repetition, this album is amazingly musically.

            Lyrically, this album sucks.  Yoshimi battling the Pink Robots is not a deep topic, nor is it truly that creative.  It’s stupid.  Damn stupid.  It’s not entertaining.  I don’t want to listen to some dude sing about pink robots.  And to top it off, like I said, the lyrics are not consistent.  The theme of the album dies off by the fourth track, which is simply a bunch of random noises and a pounding bass riff that drives ahead with no intention of stopping.  However, I am a fan of the random screams on the album, that sometimes give me a mental image of what Stephanie Seymour sounded like when Axl Rose would beat the shit out of her.  What?  Who said that?

            The weirdness of this album can barely be contained.  The murky bass effects mixed with the random female screaming, the sound of a guitar going through a broken cord, the synthesizer kicking in at random… It seems like it’s overkill, yet it somehow merges together.  Plus, nothing tops the sound of the singer’s voice on track 7, entitled “Are You a Hypnotist?” when he pushes his voice almost to the point of cracking during the line “some kind of hypnotist.” 

            This album is definitely a unique step forward for the Flaming Lips.   It is murky, yet polished.  It doesn’t quite have the same “recorded-on-my-friend’s-4-track-using-shitty-instruments” vibe that some of their older stuff has.  Yet, I still feel as if it’s one of the best albums of 2002, if not the best.  To top it off, they are nominated for a Grammy under the category “Best Instrumental Performance” for the final track on this album.  It’s not entirely instrumental, however, because it features more of the random screaming.