Pitchfork

No one ever stands up for progressives when they're dead-on-- look at Dean's media-fueled lunaticization. So, fuck it, I dig the Lips' burbly classic-rock riff-copping, "magic stick" trips and now-standard FX'd beats (ooh reverse snare!) plus handclaps. I also dig their winged-thing hope-- even if they're as subtle as Armaggedon: "Time after time those fanatical minds try to rule all the world," Wayne Coyne begins, swathed in falsetto backing, though "we got the power now/ 'Cause it's where it belongs" is either wishful or druggie thinking.

Hooks? Surely Dubya-heads will be pleased there really aren't any, and that these sonically playful foes still play loveable, uni-hit-wonderable Oklahoma acid-heads. Best parallel is Super Furry Animals' equally bilious, equally disestablishmentarian "The Frequency", except wait that one had a hook. "They have their weapons to solve all your questions/ They don't know what it's for," Coyne adds. I also like how "The Wand" fades into Beanie Siegel, but that's only because I mislabeled the mp3 so it has to play through "songs" on the 40-gig and "Flatline" follows Flaming. Lips'll box yr fucking head off.

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