Two months after they drop the 20th anniversary edition of At War With the Mystics, The Flaming Lips will return with their first new album in seven years (and 17th in total). The Teardrop Throbs, the band’s debut on Third Man Records, arrives January 22. The release also marks the psych-rockers first LP in 37 years not on longtime label Warner and first in 35 not to feature multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, who is no longer in the band (reasons for why vary depending on the party).
Teardrop is led by single “God Will Control the Werewolves”—which you can listen to below—along with a sequel to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell.” “I’ve always liked it when songs from previous records get a new rendering,” Coyne said about “Ego Tripping Part Two” in a very long, grammatically insane statement accompanying the release (you can read the full 2,000-plus word missive below). Those dates are also listed below. Revisit our 2020 review of the Lips’ American Head.
The Teardrop Throbs: 01 Throb 02 God Will Control the Werewolves 03 Titan 04 Every Teardrop Cried 05 Hooray 06 Instructions On How to Draw An Eyeball or How To Deal With a Loved One Who Is Addicted to Drugs 07 You See You In Me 08 You’ve Got Brain Damage 09 At the End of the Day 10 The Trees Are Getting Their Leaves / Ceasefire in the City of Singing Flame 11 Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell Part Two 12 A Sunset Far Away 13 Now I Understand The Flaming Lips: 01-22 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl 01-23 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl 01-26 New York, NY – Irving Plaza 01-27 New York, NY – Irving Plaza 02-23 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether 02-24 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether 02-27 Chicago, IL – Metro 02-28 Chicago, IL – Metro 04-02 London, England – O2 Shepherds Bush 04-03 London, England – O2 Shepherds Bush Wayne Coyne: I was sitting in the car in the Trader Joe’s parking lot. Little Rex was 3 years old at that time and he was sleeping in the backseat. I would check on him looking in the rearview mirror.
And ( like all fathers with little kids ) was astonished at how beautiful and perfect he was and if anything happened to him ( like illness or bad accident) my life would be destroyed.. I think all parents probably have these types of thoughts a hundred times every day. So with these things floating around my head I noticed a sign ( for I guess one of the establishments in the strip mall:: that the Trader Joe’s was in) .. it read Children’s Death Foundation… I immediately thought of my mother , as a teenager ,assisting the nuns at her Catholic junior high school with grieving families that had just suffered the loss of a child.
I imagined the cold nights sitting with strangers consoling and understanding them and attempting to hold their family together…it was just my imagination running away with me and I looked up again at little Rex in the backseat and again at this sign..I had mis-read it .. it actually said Children’s HEALTH Foundation not Children’s DEATH Foundation …I had done that a couple other times where , I guess, I had death on my mind . I remember being at the State Fair and seeing Funnel Cakes as Funeral Cakes .. but this flash of my mother volunteering at the Children’s Death Foundation had solidified in my mind and already moved me so, even though I was wrong the damage or the epiphany had already been done. It occurred to me there will never be anything in my life as important as my two little boys..
To have arrived at the greatest of the greatest purposes in life ..yes.. But also we ( The Flaming Lips ) are making a new record and what’s in your mind usually finds its way into your music whether you intend it to or not .The first song on this new record was also the first song that presented itself in this 2 year process. The song Throb is a snippet from the soundtrack to the movie The Night of the Hunter..
Extract — continue reading at the source.
