Pushing through the proverbial mush that is my capped internet, I march on in this blogosphere to bring you the 7th entry in Scrobble Scribbler - Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips.
The Flaming Lips are a fun little band apparently. Whenever I hear about/see their gigs their is always some confetti, balloons, costumes and a giant bubble involved. I'm so shocked that I haven't had a chance to go yet, but the next time they come I will definitely not skip on that chance. Neither should you, because it would be quite the experience.
I have around 5? Or a bit more than 5 I'm not sure [Actually 10 upon further inspection, including DVDs and EPs]. The earliest album I have of theirs is "Hit to Death in the Future Head" which I haven't actually listened to that much so I can't tell you what I think about it. I'd really like to listen to Zarieeka one day.
How can I describe The Flaming Lips? Well, it's sort of like psychedelic/indie/space rock. Out of all rock bands, I'd have to say that The Flaming Lips is my favorite and actually pushed me to get into rock post my Hip Hop stage. As for similiar artists - I'd say MGMT though they're more dancey they have that psychedelia about them.So Race for the Prize is off their stylistic breakthrough of an album, "The Soft Bulletin" which, if you asked, would probably be named their best album evar by critics. I wouldn't call it my favourite album of theirs because I would only listen to a few songs of off this. If I had to pick a favourite I'd probably choose their album after this one, "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" because it just seems to make more sense to me. Go figure.
The lyrics of Race are sort of positively cynical. Sure you have two scientists racing for "the cure", "for the good of all mankind" but they are "sacrifice their lives" because "they're just humans, with wives and children". What is the greater good? That we have two humans that spend all their time researching, and if one wins that scientist get all the recognition yet they have not developed time with their family? Or should we not find a cure so that they can just be
the same with humans. Do we need a cure? Yes probably and to get it, we have to sacrifice a life to save lives. Do we view them as heroes or egoists?The vocals coupled with the instrumentation don't really give you a true indication and I think the true message is that you have to accept both sides of what the song gives you. Because if you listen to the instruments, I can only really identify the drum I don't know what that other synthesizer/piano/keyboard is and I think there's some guitar probably, they're very loud and celebratory but Wayne's singing is sort of mellow. I get this sense of anxiousness in his singing, troubled by the fact that these two scientists are racing and trying to reflect on the situation.
Anyway, great song. One of my favourites - it's 5th most played on my Last.FM charts - The Flaming Lips are a magical band that created something special in this song.
The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize
BONUS:
As my internet is slow, I am not sure which video on YouTube would be the best to see a bit of their amazing live performance because I looked it up ages ago. Instead, here is a clip of The Flaming Lips with The White Stripes performing Seven Nation Army that I watched semi-recently. It is really fucking cool.
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