There’s a little bit of abrasiveness when listening to Embryonic, The Flaming Lips’ latest album. You sort of get that feeling while staring at the album cover of a girl that appears to be drowned by a hand in her own hair. It’s raw and alive. There is a comfort though with the album’s repetitious drum beats, bass lines and rhythm guitars – this is evident in “Convinced Of The Hex” and “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine”.

“Evil” has a nostalgic feeling to it, with brassy 80′s synths and Wayne Coyne’s “I wish I could go back / Back in time” lyric sang back and forth. It’s accompanied with your beloved string arrangements that are reminiscent to The Soft Bulletin. Embryonic is a familiar departure from their recent albums and harkens back to Zaireeka. The electric piano is prominent in most of the tracks with it’s 60s/70s psych rock feel, along with other random spurts of guitar outrages, falling and crashing drums and back and forth bass lines you really feel like you are listening to a band playing live.