The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic (1995; 2017) [Hi-Res]

„Clouds Taste Metallic“ is the seventh Flaming Lips record, and it is a far looser and more relaxed affair than anything that preceded it. The weirdness flows out of head-Lip Wayne Coyne's head as it always has done, but this is a record by a band that no longer has anything to prove--not to themselves, their record label, nor their fans. With sparser instrumentation than before, Coyne's voice is both more intelligible and closer to the front of the mix, and the effects, though still present, are more restrained.

Standouts on this record include the countrified slide guitar on "Placebo Headwound"; the genuinely sweet "This Here Giraffe," which comes complete with flutes and a xylophone and sounds like the theme to a particularly strange television show; "They Punctured My Yolk," which sounds bizarrely like a freaked-out version of "Seasons in the Sun"; and the supremely laid-back "Evil Will Prevail," with its gloriously swelling final verse. Clouds Taste Metallic is a nice record in the best sense of the word, and a good place to begin investigating the Lips.

„The same extraordinary madness that infected the best work of Brian Wilson rears its head on the shimmering and melodic Clouds Taste Metallic, a masterful collection which completes the Flaming Lips' odyssey into the pop stratosphere. The Pet Sounds comparisons are obvious -- two of the highlights are titled "This Here Giraffe" and "Christmas at the Zoo" -- yet not unfair; like Brian Wilson, Wayne Coyne has refined his unique vision into something both highly personal and powerfully universal. Similarly, while Coyne's lyrics remain as acid-damaged and inscrutable as ever, his densely constructed songs convey emotional complexities far beyond the scope of their head-case titles ("Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles," "Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World"); galvanized by equal parts newfound maturity and childlike wonderment, Clouds Taste Metallic is both the Flaming Lips' most intricate and most irresistible work.“ (Jason Ankeny, AMG)

Wayne Coyne, vocals, guitar
Steven Drozd, drums, piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals
Michael Ivins, bass, backing vocals
Ronald Jones, guitar, backing vocals

Tracklist:
01. The Flaming Lips - The Abandoned Hospital Ship (3:39)
02. The Flaming Lips - Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles (3:28)
03. The Flaming Lips - Placebo Headwound (3:41)
04. The Flaming Lips - This Here Giraffe (3:47)
05. The Flaming Lips - Brainville (3:14)
06. The Flaming Lips - Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World (4:29)
07. The Flaming Lips - When You Smile (3:14)
08. The Flaming Lips - Kim's Watermelon Gun (3:22)
09. The Flaming Lips - They Punctured My Yolk (4:22)
10. The Flaming Lips - Lightning Strikes the Postman (2:51)
11. The Flaming Lips - Christmas at the Zoo (3:07)
12. The Flaming Lips - Evil Will Prevail (3:26)
13. The Flaming Lips - Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version) (4:39)