Wayne Coyne, the Arcade Fire-loathing eccentric frontman of The Flaming Lips, has confirmed to Billboard today that the band’s new album will be out some time late this summer — and, lo and behold, it’s going to be a dreaded double album!
“Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that we should do a double album,” Coyne says. “Just this idea that you can kind of weave a couple of themes into there and you can sort of sprawl a little bit. Our past couple of records we’ve always had this little dilemma, like how many songs do you put on? How many instruments do you put on? What’s the focus?
“And some of my favorite records – thinking Beatles ‘White Album,’ Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ and even some of the longer things that the Clash have done – part of the reason I like them is that they’re not focused. They’re kind of like a free-for-all and go everywhere. It’s not necessarily because we’re prolific, I think we always stay in a sort of perpetual panic of like we never have more songs than we need and we always wonder if any of them are any good to begin with. I do think we probably work best in a panic, so maybe it’s best that I planned it this way.”
Sounds good to me!
The most interesting part of the article is this bit: Among the new songs currently in the mix are the Joy Division-meets-Miles Davis Group (John McLaughlin era)-sounding “Convinced of the Hex” and the John Lennon-inspired “I Don’t Understand Karma,” which Coyne describes as his response to “Instant Karma.”
Wayne Coyne channeling Miles Davis, Joy Division and John Lennon? Count me in.
The Lips’ last album, At War with the Mystics, was released in 2006. They will begin touring through a small number of venues in June.
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One of my favorite bands – I was just thinking the other day that they must be due for a new album.
Unfortunately, with a double album comes more room for error.
Still, it would be cool to hear them attempt some more "out there" material after the rather bland At War with the Mystics.