Flaming Lips
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
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Flaming Lips
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
Warner Bros., 1993
RiYL: Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Radiohead |
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, released in 1993, is the point on the curve equidistant from each. Mixing some truly strange lyrics and even stranger guitar noise with the best songcraft of the Lips' existence, it's one of those albums that's great because it simply doesn't sound like anything else. (The Lips' new one, the equally great but very different The Soft Bulletin, is another).
The one constant in the Lips evolution has been singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne. The different Lips eras have depended on who's been collaborating with him. On the first EP, it was singer (and brother) Mark Coyne. He left to get married, and drummer/singer Richard English became Wayne's main partner. After English was fired, guitarist and future Mercury Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue sat in for two albums. For Heart and its followup Clouds Taste Metallic, guitarist Ronald Jones came in. Since Zaireeka, multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd has been the number two man. Obviously, the band's lineup has been less than continuous, and that's one source of their constant sound changes.
On Transmissions, Ronald Jones provides the only proper "lead guitar" the Lips have ever had. Wayne and Mike Ivins plug away in their time-tested fuzzed-out manner as always, but Jones comes in on top with frazzled, superbly melodic leads which coincide with the most structured, distinct songs of Coyne's songwriting career. "She Don't Use Jelly," the deserved big hit, wasn't even the catchiest song on an album also boasting "Turn It On" and the anthemic "Be My Head." There's also some amazingly direct ballads, like "Oh My Pregnant Head" and "Chewin The Apple Of Yer Eye," where the Lips lose the sheets of distortion and studio trickery and prove they actual do have some straightup emotional songcrafting ability.
The odd, acoustic cover of the "Plastic Jesus" song from "Cool Hand Luke" is no less effective than the stunning, woozy riff and startling direct lyrics of "Slow Nerve Action" ("now she's gone away / and isn't so much in demand /and all us vegetables / will waste our time on someone else"), illustrating Transmissions' greatest breakthrough. The Flaming Lips prove here that they're not a one-trick band.
Their array of distortion pedals isn't just to cover up a lack of musicianship or songwriting abilities. The slower numbers reinforce the more usual earbleeders, you're more certain you're not being tricked. Although it doesn't boast quite the variety and compositional acumen of Bulletin, it's definitely the more spontaneous and less considered of the pair. The Lips sound like a genuine rock band here, albeit one with a unique and distant vision.
MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.