The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka
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CD Details
Artist: The Flaming LipsBrand: FLAMING LIPS
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set, Limited Edition
CD Release Date: 1997-10-28
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
- Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)
- Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair
- Machine in India
- Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat
- How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)
- March of the Rotten Vegetables
- Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now
- Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
- Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)
- Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair
- Machine in India
- Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat
- How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)
- March of the Rotten Vegetables
- Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now
- Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
- Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)
- Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair
- Machine in India
- Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat
- How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)
- March of the Rotten Vegetables
- Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now
- Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
- Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)
- Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair
- Machine in India
- Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat
- How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)
- March of the Rotten Vegetables
- Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now
Music reviews of Zaireeka
Music Review: Oh. My. God. DID YOU HEAR THAT???
Rating: 5 Stars
Here's a great story. Wayne Coyne, because he's crazy, got the completely random idea to line up a bunch of cars in a parking lot and play a bunch of cassettes in that bunch of cars. He discovered all of the cassette players played perfectly in sync with each other. Then he repeated the experiment using CD players instead of cassette players, and he discovered that no two CD are ever perfectly synchronized. Ever. So then he got a really crazy idea. He decided to mix an album in the least conventional way possible. He decided that he would divide the mix over the course of four CD's, so that way you got a different perspective of each song each time you listened to it on each separate CD. Ideally, you were supposed to take all four CD's (they packaged this as a quadruple album, by the way) and listen to them on four separate CD players. That was the only way you could hear the whole thing. Of course, that also means there are fifteen different ways to listen to Zaireeka. I am both convinced that Wayne was tripping on some real hardcore acid when he recorded this thing and jealous that I didn't come up with this idea first.
And here's the thing. I've never even listened to this the way it's supposed to be experienced! I've cheated, got on YouTube, and listened to the versions they have that offer the full mix. I really want to have a Zaireeka party, I really want to have the surroundsound effect. I really do. I even have a way to play this off four different mediums (iTunes, Windows Media Player, my boom box, and the clock radio that wakes me up every morning). But as they are wont to do, the record company screwed the Lips over by only giving this album a limited release. I'm not sure if it's available in any store or not. If I see it, I fully intend to snatch it up, and play it the way it was meant to be played. But for now, I'll have to settle with the already-astonishing full YouTube version of the album, before I experiment with removing one disc, or two, or three.
Naturally, this is the most "out-there" of all Lips releases. While they had always been a rather artsy band, this album is art-rock, plain and simple. Of course it's art-rock. How could it not be? It literally challenges the way people listen to music. It defies the common perception of how music is supposed to be listened to. How is this not going to be artsy? Most of these songs are rambling suites that attempt to impress you with all the crazy sound effects they use, like the barking dogs on "The Big Ol' Bug is the New Baby Now," the screams on "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)," the insect noises on "A Machine in India," and the high-pitched vocalizing on "The Train Runs Over the Camel But is Derailed by the Gnat" and you know what? They succeed in impressing you, or at least impressing me. Like Pink Floyd before them, they've made an art of incorporating "stuff" in their music, only they take it further than even Pink Floyd ever did. Of course, I'm sure that if Pink Floyd had the proper technology in the '70s, they'd have tried an album like this too, and it probably would've been awesome.
The thing is that even when you remove the crazy layers of trippiness, the songs are pretty damn good in and of their own. "Riding to Work in the Year 2025" defines ambition, beginning with a haunting string pattern before moving into space-rock and hard rock - it's a deft, creative arrangement, and it works perfectly. "35,000 Feet of Despair" is gorgeous, and "A Machine in India" would be gorgeous if it wasn't insane. I don't know how else to describe the screechy see-saw noises and insect buzzings. Just insane! A good type of insane, though. A really, really good type of insane. The song has me riveted for all ten of its minutes. Completely riveted. "Okay, I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand" leads the album off with a fantastic bass part and some weird, barely audible backing vocals chanting the title. The beautifully overproduced "How Will We Know (Futuristic Crashendos)" sounds like it was beamed down from heaven. And the demented lullaby "The Big Ol' Bug is the New Baby Now" gets a lot of points for me for its twisted sing-along qualities.
And even when the album sucks, it still at least sucks in interesting ways. The album does suck, yes, but only in one place: "March of the Rotten Vegetables." I don't know how anyone can listen to that buzzing noise that dominates it. I find it unnerving to the point of being unlistenable. I've heard they put a warning label on the album that said the low-frequency buzzing may cause nausea, and let me tell you, they weren't kidding. I do admit I find "March of the Rotten Vegetables" utterly terrible. But if you have to be utterly terrible, go all-out, so at least you can win some kudos for totally taking a chance. I mean, even for an avant-garde non-song sound collage, that's a pretty daring experiment. Besides, maybe it wasn't supposed to sound good.
Anyone who ever had any doubts about the Flaming Lips being arguably the most creative band of the '90s (I'd say it's a toss-up between them and Radiohead) should try their best to find this album right now and see if they still think that way. Wayne Coyne, if you're reading this, wherever you are, you're a genius. A freaking genius.
Description of Zaireeka
No Description AvailableNo Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: FLAMING LIPS
Title: ZAIREEKA
Street Release Date: 10/28/1997
Genre: ROCK/POP
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