The Flaming Lips have a long history and have put out many albums over the years. They have built a decades long musical career spanning their psychedelic pop albums, to their old grungy songs, to stuff that's just too weird to make any sense out of it. This album combines all three aspects and they recruit some equally strange musicians to help them record a cover of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Some would call it taboo, to cover such a prestigious album, but this is not an attempt to recreate the original. It is meant to expand on it. To create something that makes you appreciate the original even more. This album won't be for everyone. Certainly not for those who will let a remake ruin the original for them. But if you give this one a close listen, it'll give you a new perspective. Most of us have heard The Beatles songs too many times to count. But if you listen to the remake you'll hear underlying tones that are twisted and emphasized in ways The Beatles never could. Going back to the original after you listen to this album, you might notice this underlying complexity that your brain had mostly ignored because you've heard the songs too many times.
The Flaming Lips' 14th studio album, With a Little Help from my Fwends, features lots of familiar and new friends to create yet another confusing, experimental, sometimes messy sometimes beautiful creation. Some of it's not so entertaining, but between the strange electronic tunes that are both poppy and experimental, to the haunting, far-off psychedelic rides, there is something here for any fan of weird music.
The album follows the same track listing, so it starts with the intro Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It has a thicker, more chaotic sound to it. The vocals start normally, but by the end of the song are ran through a high pitched distorted voice synth. A squealing guitar solo ends the song. It's the sort of strange sound we've come to appreciate from The Flaming Lips, and they're helped by My Morning Jacket, Fever the Ghost, and J Mascis.
With a Little Help from My Fwends features the calming voice of Wayne Coyne with a screeching echo from one of the guests: Black Pus and Autumn Defense. A pretty straight forward cover, considering the source. Nice touch on the first line: when Wayne sings "What would you do if I sang out of tune?", he is using an auto-tuner.
Perhaps the best cover on the album, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds features guest vocals from Miley Cyrus. Yes, you read that correctly, Wayne and Miley are good friends and have collaborated on a few songs. She sings a sweet tune with versus that follow the original pretty closely, but then the chorus hits with a intense yet pretty crashing that we've seen before from The Flaming Lips (such as in the song Pompeii am Gotterdammerung). It's close enough to The Beatle's version that it still sounds beautiful, and weird enough to still be The Flaming Lips.
Check out the video below. Miley is amazing and the perfect choice for this song....
Also, you probably don't want to watch this video at work.
Getting Better features a gruff voice who I think might be the singer from Dr. Dog. Chuck Inglish and Morgan Delt also help in this song. He sings a deep voiced even tune like in the original, with some more outlandish backing vocals, including Wayne with a few random high pitched shrieks.
Fixing a Hole is listed as being performed by Electric Worms, which is Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne's side project that is even weirder than The Flaming Lips. Wayne sings into a echoing synthesizer to create hollow voiced lyrics. It is an eerie effect that shifts and bends as the tune progresses. The only music is a simple guitar and an occasional deep bass sound.
She's Leaving Home features another female singer, probably from the band Phantogram. Also listed are guest musicians Julianna Barwick and Spaceface. It's a pretty song, but there's not a whole lot to say beyond that. The piano is accented by electronic noises, but like the original, it has a simple beat. Since they're going for pretty, the weirdness is somewhat subdued.
For the Benefit of Mr. Kite is one of the more twisted songs on the album. Puscifier (again, they don't list who does what so I'm guessing on the vocalist) is a gruff singer and he's backed by psychedelic keyboarding. The keyboard notes don't actually hit any exact note, it quivers and if you listen closely it can mess with your brain. Odd music comes and goes, along with other strange sounds, such as slightly crazed laughing. This all creates a light but apprehensive mood. Like a spooky circus in a horror movie before anything bad has happened.
Within You Without You features Birdflower and Morgan Dent. Birdflower is "just a delusional couple of freaks," according to Wayne, "never in reality." They sing a haunting tune that matches the original perfectly, not so much in musical methods but in the atmosphere the song creates. It is a meditative tune that relies on a perfect balance of all of the different parts. The tone of the vocals pulls you in with a slight echo. The electronic music is low key through the vocals but rises and takes over the song for a minute about half way through.
When I'm Sixty Four is another strange one. The vocals alternate between a relatively normal singer and a heavily distorted second singer or they'll occasionally sing at the same time. After every few lines, a weird tone will rise, or a few contorted sounding horns will blare. The tune, featuring Def Rain and Pitchwafuzz, is psychedelic but fairly simple. The tune purposely drags along, noticeably slower than the original.
Lovely Rita is another great song from this album. It is upbeat and happy, giving you that perfect blend of both bands, with some help from Tegan and Sara and longtime friends Stardeath and the White Dwarfs. It begins with a heavy bass beat which gives way to a throbbing electronic pop beat. Tegan and Sara provide the singing that is light and perfect. It's as catchy as the original; the musical bridge features swirling electronic sounds and occasional sounds that are almost like distorted hiccuping and/or little dog yipping.
Guest musicians Zorch, Grace Potter, and Treasure Mammal help with Good Morning Good Morning. I think it is sang by Grace Potter; it features lots of strange vocal manipulations. Sometimes her voice is so twisted you can't understand the words, other times the backup singers all join in to create a piercingly lovely tune that is upbeat with epic crashes. There is a lot going on at once, and then when the music cuts out, the vocals get extremely glitchy until the beat starts up again.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise) is stranger than the intro. Foxygen and Ben Goldwasser join in here, and Foxygen sings with muffled voices that will switch between speaker sides. Music is provided by guitar and keyboard and jam aimlessly for a nice strange musical bridge.
Finally, Wayne joins up again with Miley in A day in the Life, with some help from New Fumes. Wayne starts by singing the somber first half, backed by a piano. The song transitions to a simplistic elecrtonic beat and Miley joins in to sing the verse that starts "Woke up, dragged a comb through my hair..." Wayne's somber singing finishes the last chorus. Apparently this song doesn't have a chorus, but it ends with the beat building up and then suddenly going silent.
