The Flaming Lips Album: “Telepathic Surgery”

The Lips continued their spaced-out journey with their 3rd album, Telepathic Surgery, in 1989. Next to Oh My Gawd!, this is definately one of the weirdest Lips albums. The cover is also priceless: a man standing in front of a barren field, holding a hubcap to his face.

The stand-out tracks include:

1. the brief but strange "Spontaneous Combustion Of John" and "Shaved Gorilla"

2. the hilarious "UFO Story" where Wayne tells the band about his encounters with UFOs as a kid, complete with a beautiful piano ballad stuck right in the middle.

3. "Chrome-Plated Suicide", which deserved to be a chart-topper

4. The 25-minute plus epic "Hell's Angel's Cracker Factory", which contains endless guitar and drum solos, backwards vocal samples, an opera singer, motorcycles revving, an answering machine, tape loops, and more. Worth the price of the CD alone. It also never appeared on the vinyl or cassette version, and never even was released as a single!

If you're looking to dive into the world of the Lips, here's a good place to start. Buy it, as Wayne would sing, "Right noooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!" :-)

The Flaming Lips have always been a band unto themselves; they may have paralleled certain musical movements, but they have never been followers. "Telepathic Surgery" is the last album to feature the original lineup (singer Michael Coyne, brother of guitarist Wayne, had departed following their debut EP), and shows the signs of a band struggling to keep their vision alive. Seemingly not a favorite of latter-day fans used to the feedback onslaught of the albums which followed, "Telepathic" cannot be ignored. Without the material here, there could have been no "In A Priest Driven Ambulance," if for no other reason than the frustration the band experienced while recording the former; there are some great songs to be found here, such as the nihilistic "Chrome Plated Suicide" and the guitar-screeching "Right Now." The Lips explore all of their favorite themes - Jesus ("Miracle on 42nd Street"), drugs ("Drug Machine In Heaven"), UFO's ("U.F.O. Story" and "Begs And Achin'"), all in dazzling Sensurround sound. This one may not initially seem as 'together' as other Lips' albums, but there is still plenty here to recommend it - and I mean plenty.

Telepathic Surgery is my favorite Lips album, edging out Transmissions... and clearly better than Clouds... Most Lips fans recommend Hit To Death... and In a Priest-Driven Ambulance - I have to get both, because if they are better than Surgery, I'm missing something. Surgery is intense and driving - Hell's Angels Cracker Factory is a 23-minute bonus track thats better than most entire CD's by lesser bands. Chrome-Plated Suicide, Fryin' Up and Redneck School of Technology kick ass! The cover art and the names of the songs only add to the enjoyability - I know the Lips have changed and matured - try them when they rocked!