Day 0940 - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” (2002) – got it

A continuation of the brilliantly trippy pop sound of 1999’s “The Soft Bulletin” (see day 890).   I could see that it would be easy enough with this album to make comparisons to the Beatles, what with it being a spacey baroque pop.  To my ears though, it sounds more like ‘psychedelic Bacharach’ with its clash of laid-back, beautiful melodies with crazy sounds.  This dichotomy between the weird and the traditional is probably best exemplified by Parts one and two of the title track.  The first of which is an earnest acoustic ballad with trippy trappings, the second of which is a proggy noise-fest punctuated with human screams.

On the face of it, this seems as though it’s a concept album, with its sci-fi overtones, the two-part title track and the continued references to robots and fights.  Singer Wayne Coyne though has refuted the idea, so it seems like there are just some similar lyrical ideas.  The opening track was deemed to be a bit close to Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” so he was given a writing credit.  The lyrics of that song (“Fight Test”) seem to turn against pacifism and state the need to fight.  I remember some people at the time opining that this was a reference to 9/11… I personally don’t think so, but if anyone was going to recast Al Qaeda as pink robots then I guess it’d be the Flaming Lips.

Many of the other songs follow the vibe of the “Soft Bulletin” looking at such elemental ideas as love, life, death, loneliness but never in a cynical, nihilistic way.  Certainly, the spacey, ecstatic ballad "Do You Realise" has to be one of the most beautiful and positive musings on death ever committed to record.

One thing I like about this album is that if you stripped most of these songs down to just acoustic guitar with bass and drums, they’d still be good songs.  The washes of sound, the bleeps and bloops, the sonic manipulation are all just icing (pink icing if you will) on the Lips’ cake.

Day 0852 - Life Thru a Lens

Robbie Williams "Life Thru a Lens" (1997)

My sister loved this album back in the day, she had the first couple of Robbie albums on cassette (because we're getting old) and as all big brothers should do, I suspect I poo-poohed it at the time.   I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Robbie though, and a few years later when I was going through a bout of depression and was feeling like most music just seemed like a wall of grey noise I turned to Williams' greatest hits (and some Kanye West if memory serves) and that seemed to be something that my brain was willing to let in.

As far as debuts go, it is pretty damned good.   Robbie had left boy-band Take That somewhat acrimoniously and teamed up with song-writer/producer Guy Chambers, and worked to recast himself as a cheeky rock n rolling pop star.  

The album seems to lean very heavily on the 'Brit-pop' sound, with Oasisy sneery rock and bouncy Blur-esque pop.  Regardless of the influences on display though, Williams makes it his own through his charisma and voice.   Mission statement, the brassy rocker "Let me Entertain You" lays out what he's about.

It's a fairly even album too without too much filler ("Baby girl window" maybe seems like a bit of a retread of some ideas already covered), with even the overplayed ballad "Angels" seeming entirely bearable in the context of the album as a whole.   The track "Ego a go go" slagging off Robbie's ex-Take That bandmate Gary Barlow feels musically like it's drawing on the Beatles' Revolver album, the title track has a pop-punk bent to its verses. For the most part though it's about melody with a bit of grit, and Robbie having a good time (and occasionally finding himself regretting it).