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Two months after they drop the 20th anniversary edition of At War With the Mystics, The Flaming Lips will return with their first new album in seven years (and 17th in total). The Teardrop Throbs, the band’s debut on Third Man Records, arrives January 22. The release also marks the psych-rockers first LP in 35 years not on longtime label Warner and first in 36 not to feature multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, who is no longer in the band (reasons for why vary depending on the party). Teardrop is lead by the single “God Will Control the Werewolves”—which you can listen to below—along with a sequel to Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’ “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell.”
“I’ve always liked it when songs from previous records get a new rendering,” Coyne said about “Ego Tripping Part Two” in a very long, grammatically insane statement accompanying the release (you can read the full 2,000-plus word missive below). “It’s not the same song but it is dealing with Ego death.. what is status and power and the struggle to turn it into something useful..and this again is an attempt to capture the idea of Syd Barrett fronting Pink Floyd and instead of singing about money ( Money was a big single off Dark Side Of The Moon) he , Syd, chooses, instead of singing about money to sing about a queen killing the king and stealing his crown to melt it down and make sword out of it ..ha!!!”
Following its release, Coyne and co. will present The Teardrop Throbs—which was produced by the band alongside Taylor Johnson, Dave Fridmann, and Scott Booker, with additional production by Jon Fridmann and Mike Fridman—at a handful of intimate shows. Those dates are also listed below.
Revisit our 2020 review of the Lips’ American Head.