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Hear It Is

The Flaming Lips - Hear It Is Audio CD

A fair review of the The Flaming Lips "Hear It Is" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Flaming Lips reviews here, or go back to the The Flaming Lips tabs.

Band: The Flaming Lips
Title: Hear It Is
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-10-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: With You 2: Unplugged 3: Trains, Brains & Rain 4: Jesus Shootin' Heroin 5: Just Like Before 6: She Is Death 7: Chalie Manson Blues 8: Man From Pakistan 9: Godzilla Flickn 10: Staring At Sound/With You (Reprise) 11: Summertime Blues

Nascent but not bad, especially "With You"
The thing opens with "With You," a pretty little ditty that shows that right from the get-go Wayne had a decent ear for melody and knew how to get loud and quiet and then loud again. At this point the Flaming Lips were just your basic loud amateur rock band, but with occasional signs of real songwriting ability. I think "Trains, Brains and Rain" is a mockery of folkie seriousness and nostalgia, but even if that's not what it's about it is a catchy little tune. And of course there's "Jesus Shootin' Heroin," probably the most well-known song on this debut LP. By pairing a good and extremely simple riff with eerie wails and then alternating that with Wayne speak-singing some vaguely anti-religious lyrics that don't make much sense over some chanting backing vocals, the Flaming Lips came up with something here that doesn't sound like any other song I've ever heard. That doesn't make it great, but it does make it memorable, and it's worth hearing if you've got any kind of interest in these guys. I'd be very surprised to see them do any of this stuff live, but this album's worth hearing if you like any of their other pre-Transmissions stuff.

Song by song:

1 With You ***
2 Unplugged **
3 Trains, Brains & Rain ***
4 Jesus Shootin' Heroin ***
5 Just Like Before **
6 She Is Death **
7 Charlie Manson Blues ***
8 Man from Pakistan ***
9 Godzilla Flick **
10 Staring at Sound / With You (Reprise) ***.

Not The Best Debut Out There, But They're Trying Like Hell.
At this point in their history, The Lips hardly knew what they were doing, but they practiced and practiced until they got enough songs together to record an album. The Flaming Lips didn't always have members who knew how to play their instruments. This isn't my favorite music, by The Flaming Lips or anybody else, but it's a start. . . And a damn fine one, at that. After an almost unnoticed EP, this underground gem kicked off their careers with a hefty punch in the gut. It's sometimes hard to listen to, but their ambitions just make you respect them so much more.

But that doesn't mean all of it's bad. No, no, no. Some of this is great stuff. "With You" starts off very quietly, with some nice little noodling and a very simple melody with very basic lyrics. . . But the chorus climaxes with wailing guitars (And it doesn't matter that they don't know how to play, because the feedback just makes it sound good!) and gives the song some diversity.

After the song makes its quiet exit, the next song starts off very suddenly with a catchy punk/garage riff. Come to think of it, this whole album kind of sounds like a sixties' tribute with some sonic punk noise pulling it through the eighties. The third track has to be my favorite by far, though. Very catchy, and has jangly guitars accompanying the searing (once again, punky) electric guitar. In fact, the jangly acoustic could be considered a heavily played folk tune. . .

Although, after "Jesus Shootin' Heroin", there is not much more diversity on this album, except for "Godzilla Flick", which is a pretty, but a little bit bland, acoustic ditty. "Jesus Shootin' Heroin" is quite the pretentious, but with good reason, seven-minute religion-questioning rocker, which really could have used some time shaven off. So this is where The Flaming Lips start showing their artistic talent by making some good songs along with a few mediocre without really knowing what they're doing. They've found ways to cover up the fact that they're still learning by playing quickly or pasting distortion all over the place. The Flaming Lips only go up from here, but this is a promising start.

Love the lips, but....
It's just fairly boring "punk rawk". Let me first say, the lips are incredibly innovative and interesting to listen to, but this album doesn't live up to others at all. So if you're going to buy a lips cd, buy any other one (they're all incredible), but skip "hear it is".

Please remember that this band used to play "the rock music"
The music on "Here it is" is, although probably not the best, a great start to the Flaming Lip's career. I just wanted to take this moment to review "Here it is" post release of Yoshimi, hoping of course that some of the new fans this album, which I consequently think it great, will take some time to listen to a bit of the history. No matter how many times I hear this album, it still can give me chills. From the dark humor in the first track, "With You," to the get out of your seat rock of "Planes, Trains, and Brains" and "Charlie Manson Blues," not forgetting the utterly bizzare religious statement of "Jesus Shootin' Heroin," there is absolutely no way that this album will not keep interested until the very end. This is a great way to remember how music was while Michael Irvins still had "the hair. ".

the Lips say "Yo, we're here."
Their 1986 debut album, "Hear It Is", is nowhere near the hard rockin' trippiness of their later work, but still worth a listen. After the Lips released an unimpressive EP in 1985, they made a very wise choice and let Wayne Coyne take over as lead vocalist, and let his drug-addict brother Mark step down. It's much darker than their follow-ups, especially on such songs as "Godzilla Flick" (a really sad song about Mark's near-fatal battle with drugs). There is slight signs of the Lips' trademark goofiness, in "Charlie Manson Blues" and "Trains, Brains And Rain".
Overall, nothing to warp your mind, but still worth getting, for historical reasons, and a must for any diehard Lips fan such as myself. And check out the album cover: gotta love Wayne's Julius Erving afro. He sure looks angry, too.

You can see a complete list of all The Flaming Lips discography, or go back to the The Flaming Lips tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.