Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
THE FLAMING LIPS: "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart" (Warner)
Gerry McGovern, 20 Oct 1993
THE FLAMING LIPS: "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart" (Warner)
The ass and cart had a bit of an accident so this review is a tad late. Well better late… and all that crap. Yes, a Flaming Lips album is worth waiting for. Last year's niftily titled Hit To Death In The Future Head is quite simply one of the best releases I've heard in the '90s. So I had great expectations for Transmissions…
On the first couple of listens it was most definitely a let-down. This is a band I have great faith in and I was very disappointed. Things have gotten mightily better the more I've played it, however, and while I don't think it's quite as good as Hit To Death…, it'll do nicely all the same.
The Lips are liable to serve you up lyrics that would turn a dog's stomach. I mean, lines like, "I know a guy who goes to shows/When he's at home he blows his nose", from 'She Don't Use Jelly,' would leave the most vicious Doberman poleaxed. They tend to do irritating little things at the end of songs too - at the end of 'Pilot Can At The Queer Good', they go on singing after the music has been flushed down the toilet. (And they tend to have odd song titles too, in case you hadn't noticed.)
Yet, for every daft line, The Lips also manage to concoct a lyric which is unbalanced and deviant enough to tickle the imagination. Like on the magnificent 'When You're Twenty Two': "It's great when you don't understand/That you're living against the machine/The whole things leaves you/A nothing instead of a beast." And then, out of nowhere can come a beautiful, sensitive, low-key strummer - whistling and all - like 'Chewin' The Apple of Your Eye': "Hey, what were you thinking when they were starting the show/Yeah, I was there but I didn't care at all/I was trying to find you/When you got lost in the crowd."
There are parts of this album which remind me of a hyped-up acoustic Neil Young. There are parts which remind me of nothing else. These Lips are freaky, unhinged by too many drugs and psychedelic colours. They can be irritating but more often than not they're downright exhilarating.
Perhaps these lines from 'Moth In The Incubator' sum them up (although, don't quote me on it): "I've been born before/I'm pretty used to it/Braindead is always how it ends."
Buy and fry.
• Gerry McGovern
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