The Flaming Lips are one of the brightest yet most uncanny freckles on the shoulders of psychedelic indie music and since 1984, nobody has been doing it more frequently and peculiarly than Wayne Coyne and his ever-changing cast of characters. Thier latest release “You n Me Sellin’ Weed” will land as the eighth track on their anticipated thirteen song project, American Head, which will be the Oklahoma products’ sixteenth studio album.
“You n Me Sellin’ Weed” opens with wobbly surf-sounding guitar ringing out as strong rhythm chords poke through the waviness. Sustaining reverberations continue as breathing noises indicate the pace of the introduction.
When Coyne’s voice begins, we can tell this is about as close to a love ballad as we are going to see from the group in their later albums. As a beating drum arrives, a bass line begins building around ambient noises still evoking a feeling of breathing.
As Coyne’s vocals echo and reverberate like a river rippling from a trout jump, the final resonation culminates into a western blues style guitar lick with increased drum tempo as a taste of what the final chorus will have to offer.
Additional synths and drum machine tempo continue to join the mix until an eruption into a strings section to outro as Coyne sings his final lines with themes of escaping the world, running away with a lover and making life work in the uncertainties of a failing America.
“You n Me Sellin’ Weed” proves that despite over 30 years in the game, The Flaming Lips carry on with their pursuit of speaking to a generation who are otherwise hopeless without a voice willing to continue to push boundaries of music. American Head will drop on September 11th on Warner Bros in the US and Bella Union in the UK.
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