The Flaming Lips’ music has always swirled with sci-fi weirdness, so it isn’t much of a stretch that their new mini-LP should be inspired by the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s dystopian classic Ender’s Game.
None of the four tracks explicitly reference the film but singer Wayne Coyne is in high orbit from the start: ‘If They Move, Shoot Em’ is a chrome-plated sci-fi lullaby creaking with end of the world portentousness; on the synth soaked ‘Think Like A Machine, Not A Boy’, sudden tempo shifts are paired with Coyne’s rasping delivery and bleak lyrics (“My mind has been poisoned by your lies,” he spits). The project culminates in the 12 minute ‘Assassin Beetle - The Dream Is Ending’, a droning throb of psychedelic space-pop. Over recent albums, the Lips’ music has turned increasingly darker (in part informed by Coyne’s divorce and an apparently heavy dose of midlife blues). Here the band appear to have emerged from the far side of a dark hole and set course for brighter constellations. You wish them well on their way.

Key Track: 'Assassin Battle - The Dream is Ending'