Oklahoman pop weirdos the Flaming Lips have released so many ridiculous artifacts and tag-team tracks these last few years that it's hard to believe the band haven't actually released a proper studio LP since 2009's Embryonic. The psych-rock outfit have now announced the follow-up, titled The Terror, and it arrives April 2 via Warner Bros./Bella Union.
While the release date might have our skeptics alarm going off full tilt, ring leader Wayne Coyne asserted this is the real deal via a press release, and noted that the impending song cycle just might be a bit of a downer, having described it as "this bleak, disturbing record."
As to why the band came up with said unsettling material, he added "I don't really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless... or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another?? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer."
It seems, at least judging by Coyne's rambling statement, that The Terror homes in on themes of disillusionment.
He continued: "We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on... we just go on… there is no mercy killing."
A tracklisting has yet to make the rounds for the nine-song effort, which was produced by Dave Fridmann, but a fittingly bleakly-titled non-LP track titled "Sun Blows Up Today" will arrive February 3.
UPDATE: The tracklist has arrived. Peruse it below.
The Terror:
1. Look...The Sun Is Rising
2. Be Free, a Way
3. Try to Explain
4. You Lust
5. The Terror
6. You Are Alone
7. Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die
8. Turning Violent
9. Always There...In Our Hearts
While the release date might have our skeptics alarm going off full tilt, ring leader Wayne Coyne asserted this is the real deal via a press release, and noted that the impending song cycle just might be a bit of a downer, having described it as "this bleak, disturbing record."
As to why the band came up with said unsettling material, he added "I don't really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless... or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another?? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer."
It seems, at least judging by Coyne's rambling statement, that The Terror homes in on themes of disillusionment.
He continued: "We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on... we just go on… there is no mercy killing."
A tracklisting has yet to make the rounds for the nine-song effort, which was produced by Dave Fridmann, but a fittingly bleakly-titled non-LP track titled "Sun Blows Up Today" will arrive February 3.
UPDATE: The tracklist has arrived. Peruse it below.
The Terror:
1. Look...The Sun Is Rising
2. Be Free, a Way
3. Try to Explain
4. You Lust
5. The Terror
6. You Are Alone
7. Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die
8. Turning Violent
9. Always There...In Our Hearts