Hear It Is

After creating a little stir of interest with their self-released debut record, The Flaming Lips signed to Restless and created their very first album. From the start it's obvious that somebody here knows how to write a good song. With You remains to this day one of the most powerful songs that the Lips have written. The simplistically beautiful beginning to the song builds into a real maelstrom of noise and fades back to the gently picked chords it began with as Wayne sings a heartfelt song of love and infatuation which is really rather moving.

After this the album shifts to more straight up punk fare, but punctuated with some truly classic moments. You see, back in 1986, the Lips always had that do what they wanted to approach to music and it was always just meant to be rock and roll fun. Maybe they had one or two messages in their songs (see Jesus Shootin Heroin, Man From Pakistan) but they were never into trying to start a revolution or telling anyone what was right or wrong - back then they were always singing about the things that they thought about, whatever they were....

Anyway, moving back to the classic moments, She Is Death is a fantastic shimmering song that keeps on building and slowing (like so many of their best songs). Godzilla Flick is a not quite gentle almost ballad all about not being able to come back when you're dead (written when Wayne thought his brother was going to die of a drug overdose). Staring At Sound closes the album by leading quite gloriously into a reprise of With You.

So, while this album is occasionally a bit too reverby punk songs, it was a sure sign of things to come and a classic album of its time.