Much less of a grand, sweeping statement than the two albums before it and more of a collection of songs — some great and others somewhat less so — the Flaming Lips' 11th album has an old-school vibe to it, and that certainly isn't a bad thing for listeners who'd been along for the whole strange trip. The group attempted to explore some new directions with tracks such as "Mr. Ambulance Driver" (which Wayne described as "space-age jazz"); "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)," a stomping, Black Sabbath-style rocker, and the electronic bubblegum ditty "The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song (With All Your Power)." The latter two songs were Wayne's first lyrical forays into politics, while the album outtake "Your Face Can Tell the Future" almost qualifies as a soul song. But the tune that may best sum up everywhere the band has been and where it still might be going is "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung," a gorgeous yet frightening song that, appropriately enough, finds the group returning to the ground zero of its influences, Pink Floyd. As for the album title, Wayne noted, "There's something about a man struggling with the things that are mysterious to him, where once you… read more »