The Flaming Lips – Clouds Taste Metallic (30th Anniversary) (Rhino/Warner)
The Flaming Lips are like a fine wine. The long-running Oklahoma-based alternative psych-rock band led by frontman Wayne Coyne formed in 1983 and released 5 underground albums of noisy garage-punk before breaking into the mainstream with their MTV hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly,” from their 1993 album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Their underrated follow-up Clouds Taste Metallic was released in 1995 via Warner Bros. Records and predictably most of those “one hit wonder” fans left but critics and longtime fans saw the band begin to build their highly-influential sound that blended surreal pop and noise-addled psychedelic alternative rock.
To celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary, Rhino Records is offering the album as part of their Start Your Ear Off Right campaign with a new reissue under their Rhino Reserve series.
Boasting superior sound and pressed onto 180-gram black vinyl, the cult classic album Clouds Taste Metallic showcases a band coming into their sound, one that would eventually reach the pinnacle of their success with The Soft Bulletin in 1999 and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in 2002. But Clouds is a headphone-worthy world to get lost in with warped Pet Sounds-esque melodies and instrumentation – see the chiming church bells on opener, “The Abandoned Hospital Ship” as well as the standout single, “This Here Giraffe” with its catchy, playful melodies and dissonant beauty.
Other standouts include the peppy punk rhythms of the freaky fuzzed-out bass-led “Psychiatric Explorations of The Fetus With Needles,” the intricate and bouncy “When You Smile” and the slow-burning “They Punctured My Yolk,” which was later sampled by the Beastie Boys on their album To The Five Boroughs. Though not released as a single, “Placebo Headwound” with its soaring, space-sent vocals as well as the single, “Brainville” with its warped Beatles-informed melodies are the two tracks that most signify the Lips’ future sound. And while I have your attention, the humorous and festive “Christmas At The Zoo” should be on everyone’s Holiday playlist.
Longtime fans of The Flaming Lips will find this new Rhino Reserve reissue of Clouds Taste Metallic the perfect, great-sounding addition to their collection and new fans will discover a band with way more to offer than just “jelly.” —Justin Kreitzer for Icon Fetch