Originally
published in Skyscraper
In the wake of last’s year’s
tremendously enjoyable offering Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,
the ever-benevolent Flaming Lips now gift us with the Fight
Test EP. You may have already heard the complaint that there’s
not more original material from the Yoshimi sessions, some of
which is said to be terrific stuff. Not to worry. Though inconsistent
in quality and tone, the EP still proves an agreeable listen.
First, you hafta chuckle at Wayne Coyne’s
mock-epic take on the Kylie smash “Can’t Get You Out
of My Head,” what with its kettle drums and cymbals and
his grave interpretation of the lyrics. Coyne stretches the whirling
delicious popgum of the original into a tragic slo-mo lament.
Still, it’s a gimmick song, and you may find yourself skipping
it after a couple of listens. The band’s more faithful versions
of Beck’s “The Golden Age” and Radiohead’s
“Knives Out” weather better, even if they do prove
less inventive. Two songs from Yoshimi do show up: the excellent
album version of “Fight Test” opens the EP (the video
is also included), and Scott Hardkiss mixes a groovy nine-minute
long version of “Do You Realize??,” though he consequently
dilutes the potency of the original.
Two new tracks close the disk,
“The Strange Design of Conscience” a pretty though
unremarkable effort and “Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic
Jesus that You Gave Me).” The latter opens with a sorta
talky Johnny Cash intro, and then Wayne strums his way through
a tender account of how, er, Jack White gave him a fiber-optic
Jesus backstage at a Beck concert. “It shined so bright
that I couldn’t help believin’ it would save me,”
he sings. Well, amen. This is precisely the sort of enjoyable
nonsense we expect from Coyne: stuff that confirms that his synapses
aren’t firing in the same order as yours and mine.
The key then is not to expect Yoshimi Battles
More Robots; then you’ll enjoy this EP for what it is: a
delightful jalopy of a disk, rolling and bouncing joyfully along
its brief course.
Official
site
Robert Stribley
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