Fight Test EP

After releasing the crossover album of the year with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots the Flaming Lips did shows with Beck ... then Justin Timberlake. While touring they started covering Radiohead songs ... then Kylie Minogue songs. Ha Ha, Mr. Coyne.  

Back in November a promotional EP entitled Yoshimi Wins! started floating around and soon became a hot bootleg and download item. Now almost six months later Warner Brothers has decided to give the EP a revamping and new moniker, thus the seven-song Fight Test EP.

Fight Test features three cover songs, the title track, a techno remix of “Do You Realize” and two new songs. I smell crossover propaganda, do you (realize)? The Lips want rock fans. They want pop fans. They want techno fans. The Flaming Lips want the world. Master Lip Wayne Coyne embraces irony. His music is compound, but still he insists everyone hears it. He drills irony.

Hearing the Kylie Minogue guilty pleasure “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” through Coyne’s lips is boggling. The Flaming Lips turned an electro-dance radio hit into a Dark Side of the Moon-inspiriting love epic. Although not quite as elaborate as the Kylie tribute, “Knives Out” is a more tentative take on Radiohead’s surprisingly straightforward single from Amnesiac. Rounding up the cover songs is a futile version of Beck’s “The Golden Age.”

Now, the “floating in space” remix of “Do You Realize?” Ouch. Clocking in at over nine minutes of forced dance beats courtesy of Scott Hardkiss, the remix stands as the biggest flaw on the EP. I imagine that Hardkiss is good at what he does (otherwise he wouldn’t be working with The Flaming Lips), but after hearing Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots it’s clear that Coyne needs no help in the electronic music department.

Two new songs, “The Strange Design of Conscience” and “Thank You Jack White,” appear on the EP and secure the purchase for both the collector and the M2 White Stripes fan. The quality of “The Strange Design of Conscience,” which was recorded for Yoshimi but didn’t fit in anywhere on the album, parallels that album. “Thank You Jack White” serves as a complete novelty. Over a twangy guitar rhythm Coyne describes a night on tour with Beck where Jack White approached him backstage and gave him a statue of Jesus. Someday Coyne will be able to tell his grand kids that he was big enough to write a song about the guy in the red and white band. Then he can show them his prized statue of Jesus.

Clearly a attempt to branch out to even more listeners than ever and capitalize on the success of Yoshimi, Fight Test manages enough high points to warrant a purchase. With five straight great albums under their belt The Flaming Lips are one album away from securing their place in rock history.     7/10

Written by G. William Locke