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Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell

The Flaming Lips - Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell Audio CD

A fair review of the The Flaming Lips "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" 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: Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-11-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Assassination Of The Sun 2: I'm A Fly In A Sunbeam (Following The Funeral Procession Of A Stranger) 3: Sunship Balloons 4: Do You Realize?? (T.P.S. Mix) 5: Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell (Ego In Acceleration Jason Bentley Remix) 6: Ego Tripping (Self-Admiration With Blow-Up Mix) 7: A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)

Fun!
The Flaming Lips are truly original, not to say they have no influences, but they do continue to inspire. If you can't have fun with this one, you can't have fun. Have fun with it - it's meant for that!.

The B-sides you should NOT hide, Clyde.
I also bought the FIGHT TEST Maxi single, which in many ways is a twin to this release, tho the weaker twin of the two. I bought this CD single, because i was curious as to what else laid on the cutting room floor, after a masterpiece like YOSHIMA gets released. The EGO TRIPPING Single has an incrediblely beautiful three song lead off which, like the YOSHIMI album, merges the individual songs into each other without a rill. Personally, these songs seem as tho they fit right after EGO TRIPPING on the album, tho that's obviously a matter of taste. Like the collection of surprisingly sophisticated and developed images of Yoshimi on all the CD singles, and the CD album, these first three songs on EGO TRIPPING are DEFINATELY cut from the same piece of sonic and lyric cloth, which has given us the YOSHIMI album. The songs here are legato and meditative; all three deal with THE SUN as a central poetic image. (Ever notice how important ORANGE is to this guy? His paintings, his lyrical imagery, his hair etc. ? WHY?) Anyway, when i listen to YOSHIMI now, i always include the first three songs from this MAXI SINGLE, because it seems to develope its own little subplot to the music and lyrics on the main album. Merging mystical overtones and the adult graphic novel esthetic, each song becomes its own individual FRAME in a graphic novel. FIRST FRAME, humans give up the will to fight for whats right, and become robotic. FRAME TWO is where Yoshimi battles robots which begin to take on human characteristics. A reversed perspective would be Yoshimi's heart is robotic, and she fights any robotic human who starts to feel compassion in a world where compassionate feelings and philosophies are quickly dying out. Could the first song be a human battling the robotic YOSHIMI? After all, what IS a PINK ROBOT, except a human being without a soul. The depth of this album is how it just asks questions, without spelling out THE ANSWER in granite. (Didactic pontificating would have destroyed this work. ) What we have here, beyond deep questions, is a story that gives HOPE, that compassion will win out, and that the global warming robot-humans who are "ASSASINATING THE SUN" wont win. Wayne's world incorperates SCIFI dreams that give the world the technological advantage to overcome the problems facing it today. This is a call to FIGHT the easy road to shutting down our hearts to compassion, and face the BIG CHALLANGES facing us today. If we give ourselves over to ANY easy answer, or to give up in the face of FEAR, we become the Pink Robots. Ought we have Yoshimi, or others, fight our fights for us? Isnt the BIG fight both the dehumanization of society, matched to the enviormental disasters facing us, if we dont fight the wasteful technology causing these disasters NOW? Well, there are no easy answers. However this CD SINGLE (at least the first 3 songs) does elaborate wonderfully the central questions posed on the album. As for the remixes, they are interesting, not unlike any dance mix, or extended track which normally comes on MAXI singles. The CHRISTMAS song is pretty cool, but not part of the whole YOSHIMI sonic/graphic novel. As for FIGHT TEST MAXI SINGLE, it also has some cool songs, but the majority of "new songs" are cover songs. The exception on the FIGHT TEST MAXI SINGLE is the song STRANGE DESIGN OF COINCIDENCE. Again, both poetically and sonically, it would easily fit on the YOSHIMI album, perhaps right after FIGHT TEST, and before Yoshimi begins her battles. I highly recommend BOTH of these CD singles. Each are around 30 minutes long, so you get good BANG for your buck, and each give you great outtakes from the YOSHIMI sessions. Buy them both, and make yourself a "DIRECTOR'S CUT" of YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS, and set the entire series of YOSHIMI paintings that Wayne did in front of you, while you listen to the re-edit you create. After all, if FLAMING LIPS is about ANYTHING, its about AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION. Like ZAIREEKA, perhaps Wayne DOES want people to extend the Yoshimi work, with these singles. I know i did, and love the album even more for doing it.

More Music Should Feel This Nice
This EP is not one of those. There is a lot of music that leaves you feeling neutral and emotionally unaffected. I can't listen to this and not feel a sweet mixture of joy and wonder. If I'm feeling spaced out or dead to the world all I do is pop this in, give it a listen through, and feel the magic of existence come back to me. There are some new songs and some remixes on this and both are fantastic. The remixes really hold up well and do a lot for the originals. The new stuff is impressive and creates a wonderful sensation in my brain. I like so maybe you will too. .

Nice Trip
I think the level of distortion on "Sunship Balloons" is a bit much and detracts from such a great song. This is a pretty good addendum to Yoshimi. I like the dashes of new wave thrown in to the mix. All in all, another excellent FL album and reasonable at $10.

Essential
I saw the Ego Trippin EP at Best Buy and finally decided to buy it after months of looking at it and putting it back. I had been getting a little tired of the Lips latley (because I was listening to them all the time), so I took a little break. The first three songs are absolutley on par with the best of anything they have done. "Assination of the Sun" to me, combines the best of Soft Bulletin and the best elements of Yoshimi. The production is perfect. Had I heard these songs before AWWTM, I would have even been more let down by the new album. There is also a christmas song at the end with great lryics sung by a deep voice from Wayne. Lips fans who havent purchased this disc, dont hesitate.

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.