Clouds Taste Metallic

Full of sachaarine melodies laced with barbed hooks that will not leave your subconscious, Clouds Taste Metallic is an album that quite honestly makes you want to burst with joy at times. But, as with all Flaming Lips creations, there is always that element of sorrowful longing. The acknowledgement that the world is not perfect is usually made by the asking of almost philosophical questions - "If God hears all my questions, then how come there's never any answers" in Placebo Headwound - and sad fantasy tales like the story of the astronauts who fall in love only to be separated when only one journeys to the stars in They Punctured My Yolk.

This album seems to be following the trend of Wayne's lyrics edging further and further away from the personal and into the `fable' sort of subject matter. To be honest most of the lyrics he has written for a long while don't seem to be that personal, but he has often employed rewrites of true stories (like Waterbug) and there seem to be less of those sorts of songs here. Whatever the subject matter, there are a lot of more obscure yet beautifully phrased lyrics that aren't mere gibberish (lips songs never are) for the sake of the fantastic wordplay.

Musically, this album really follows on further from the slight change in direction, towards a poppier sound, marked by the Transmissions album. It's a less dense sound than there has been, but there's still one hell of a lot going on in most of the songs, and this probably owes a lot to Dave Fridmann being back at the desk after the exciting but intense work of Keith Cleversley on the last outing. It would seem that the newer members are probably more musically involved than before - Steven writes up to about half of the music now, although he won't write lyrics, and you can hear his xylophoney bits and smatterings of piano punctuating the background of this record all through.

Whatever the reasons, this is a record which quite positively soars. It has the most beautiful sense of dynamicism - the most gentle and quiet of songs still have those trademark Lips crescendo moments, where smiling chords blend with the shimmering crashings of the cymbals. Ron's complete mastery of the guitar beast is in evidence as ever - you'd swear there were violins and string sections half the time on here but it's just Ron and his effects cupboard - but it's not a noisefest. However, the wildly open approach to musical style leaves the music as pleasantly indescribable as ever....

So, listening to this album takes you through tales of lost love, metaphors for people fighting their own battles, the question of whether good can ever overcome evil, the tale of an unwitting hero and the repressed state worker. It's a musical rollercoaster of humble joy and it's guarranteed to make you smile, laugh and wonder.