[habibtheantiamericanbitch]

the W.A.N.D. flipsides are good too!!

[RdTv]

I'm still listening to this album though, I haven't given up on it yet, (although i think i did a while ago, mentally) hoping of enjoying seeing them live with SY and not beeing one of those guys who stands there with his arms crossed and that pissy look on his face during the band he doesn't like. Noone likes/want to be that guy, and I don't want my issues with their album to detract from the entire experience of the show.

[kingcoffee]

At first I was a little aprehensive of the record. I heard "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and thought, "Uh oh, here we go: Another great band releases stupid crap." I have since warmed up to the song and the album once I got it when it came out. I like it well enough to throw it in my cd player every once in a while, but it is not one of my favorite Flaming Lips records. I play practically every other Flaming Lips album more often than I do At War with the Mystics. It has a few good tracks on it. "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" has a certain fun thing going for it. It's got a good beat. "Free Radicals" has a good beat, too but it reminds me too much of Prince's music, so I really don't like that aspect of it. I could take it or leave it. "My Cosmic Rebellion" is nice but it is too derivative of the Flaming Lips' current fascination with lush orchestral sounds. It gets on my nerves after a while (the style, not the song). I really would like it if the band returned to form a la their 90's fuzzed out guitars and crazy looping (Ronald Jones style) and acid-pop song structures. "It Overtakes Me" is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It has a great, funky beat and makes me wanna get up and dance. And I NEVER dance! "Mr. Ambulance Driver" is an okay song, but a little too slow and sad-sounding, so it has a couple of strikes against it. "The W.A.N.D." also comes off as one of the stronger songs off the album. I like the processed guitar sound Steven gets on it. The lyrics are also pretty cool, too. "Goin' On" is also a pretty good track. It reminds me of "Put the Waterbug in the Policeman's Ear" or "The Spiderbite Song". Wayne is actually a pretty good pianist. I'm surprised he hasn't done more work with that particular instrument.

So there we have it. Though At War with the Mystics may not be a great album, it still has a decent amount of material to offer. But in reality, only half the album is really worth listening to. The other half is too derivative and samey-sounding to really offer any interesting music or ideas. It really reminds me of Sonic Youth's Rather Ripped; a decent album with some good songs and musical ideas, but on the whole, an under-realized and slightly uninspired follow up of their previous (and more interesting) records.

I was kinda dissapointed with this album when I first got it, but after a while I liked it more and more. It won't go down as one fo the best Flaming Lips albums, but it will still hold it's own. Unfortunately, it's the worst Flaming Lips album since Telepathic Surgery. But hey, that was a pretty good album and a 16 year run of releasing brilliant recirds is pretty fucking impressive if you ask me.