Flaming Lips

At War with the Mystics - 2006

The Flaming Lips have become a official name-brand rock band as they deliver what you expect at every show and on every

album.

In the case of their latest album "At War with the Mystics," the group's first disc in four years, that means more

strange, warbled lyrics, more folk songs from a cosmic cave and enough stereophonic FX to make Spielberg dizzy.

"At War with the Mystics" was mined from the same weird well that produced "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" and "The Soft

Bulletin." This time, instead of writing about a kung-fu schoolgirl battling robots, the band is inspired by today's

headlines. Recorded between June '04 and January '06, "Mystics" is a reflection of the times: the '04 election, the war and

isolationism, God, Gwen Stefani ...

Coyne's lyics can be odd or just annoying: "You think you're radical / But you're not so radical / In fact you're

fanatical," from the trying, techno-funk "Free Radicals." Of course, the frontman is also unapologetically existential: "Off

in the future maybe there ain't no heaven / It's just you and me and maybe that's just as well / Cause if there ain't no

heaven maybe there ain't no hell," from the trippy "Vein of Stars." On this album, the gray-bearded singer even manages to be

downright inspiring: "But this one bird didn't leave you / It stayed through the wintertime / You can't hear it sing but you

can hear it as it flies," from the luminous "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion."

"At War with the Mystics" is a headtrip of an album thriving in its psychedelic flashes. If the Flaming Lips have evolved

into today's Pink Floyd, that's a brand of rock that suits Coyne and company well.