The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends

In the case of a band as seminal as The Flaming Lips, it is increasingly difficult to evaluate their contemporary efforts. For 30 years, The Lips have pushed their medium as far as it can be pushed in any palatable direction, having explored every possible nook and cranny along the way. And therein lies a catch: When a band with such a voluminous catalog reaches creative zenith—which The Lips arguably did with 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and its follow-up, 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots—they begin to run the risk of making records for themselves more so than the fans. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends speaks to such a notion. A 70-minute collection of star-studded guest appearances (everyone from Nick Cave to Kesha) rather than a cohesive LP, Fwends is an album of tranquil highs (“Children of the Moon”) and languid lows (“Helping the Retarded to Know God”), frenzied peaks (“You, Man? Human???”) and masturbatory valleys (“Girl, You’re So Weird”). You could make this same hit-and-miss case for most Lips records, but with Fwends coming three years on the heels of their seemingly unnecessary The Dark Side of the Moon tribute, one has to wonder if The Lips are still up to the challenge.