The Flaming Lips – With a Little Help from My Fwends
Reviewed by Alex McCullough
Rating: 7.5/10
The Flaming Lips are perhaps the most prolific and acclaimed psychedelic band of the last 20 years. The group began making music in the mid-80s and have released scads of strange and polarizing music consistently over the years. They have released several tribute/cover albums including Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, and for their latest effort, they’ve taken on what many consider to be the greatest album of all time: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This album is made in a similar manner as their 2012 release, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends; each track features guest appearances from artists such as Foxygen, Tegan and Sara, My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Phantogram, and Miley Cyrus. This diverse group of musicians comes together beautifully on this album to deliver a rendering of the classic Beatles album that is as bizarre as it is catchy. This album is catching a lot of flak for trying to do such a “classic album” justice in a way that is so experimental and strange. If you want to enjoy this album, I think you need to distance yourself from the idea that Sgt. Pepper is some kind of musical holy grail and just enjoy the music that The Flaming Lips are making. If you do this, you’re left with a challenging and engaging listening experience that is pretty satisfying and enjoyable.
With a Little Help from My Fwends matches Sgt. Pepper track for track and drenches the classic songs with copious amounts of psychedelic noise and ambience that makes it sound distinctly like a Flaming Lips record. Some of these songs fall a little flat, but others turn out extremely well. “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” is a fantastic rendition with Miley Cyrus providing gorgeous vocals over serene verses that lead into a cacophonous explosion of sound in each chorus. This noisy reimagining of “LSD” is one of the highlights of the album and really showcases how good a vocalist Miley can be. Other songs deviate even more from the original record with “She’s Leaving Home” and “Lovely Rita” are given some trippy beats that are extremely danceable. “Within You Without You”, possibly the most experimental track on the original record, holds true to this standard on this album and features a psychedelic, Indian-sounding atmosphere that would make George Harrison proud. A few of these tracks are too weird for their own good; Dr. Dog’s half-spoken vocals on “Getting Better” are a little off putting, and the verses on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” are accompanied by an unrelenting chirping synthesizer that grates on the ears a bit.
Despite some moments of over-weirdness, I think the good on this album far outweighs the bad. It’s nothing new or groundbreaking from The Flaming Lips, but it’s a beautifully psychedelic tribute to the Beatles and their most influential record while incorporating enough original production and ideas to stand on its own as a good album.
Favorite Tracks: “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”, “Within You Without You”, “Fixing a Hole”
RIYL: Animal Collective, MGMT, The Beatles
FCC Violations: none
