The Flaming Lips
Oczy Mlody
Bella Union
THE title of this 14th studio album from the epoch-spanning American psychedelic band is Polish and translates as “young eyes”, though that's of little relevance beyond the fact that Lips mainstay Wayne Coyne bought a second-hand novel in the language because he liked the cover and then found those words within it. Employing them in the new album's overall concept – something about gated futuristic communities – he has turned them into the name of a fictional party drug. How much any of this matters is moot: Oczy Mlody merely confirms that the Flaming Lips are to the Noughties and beyond what Gong were to the 1960s and 1970s, namely unashamed space rockers defiantly ploughing their own furrow. But with a better live show.
Nothing happens at any great speed. By the time we reach closing tracks Almost Home (Blisko Domu) and We A Family, the band have almost reached walking pace. But it's delicately-wrought pair How and There Should Be Unicorns, in which Coyne's rasping tenor floats above sonorous bass lines and spacey-sounding synth trills, and six-minute wig-out One Night While Hunting For Faeries And Witches And Wizards To Kill that typify Oczy Mlody. The Flaming Lips's outward bound journey takes no detours here.
Barry Didcock
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here