Weekend Listens: Echo & the Bunnymen, The Flaming Lips, Remix Corner

Echo & the Bunnymen are one of my favorite bands of all-time; I have loved them since I was a kid, from hearing my mom play their albums regularly. As with most of their then-contemporaries that have stuck around through the years, this band have mellowed-out in their sound significantly over time. They have also had to deal with the loss of drummer Pete de Freitas in 1989 and in September 2009 keyboardist Jake Brockman, both from motorcycle accidents. There has been much resurgence of interest in this band as well as a crop of new fans (post-"The Killing Moon" being included Donnie Darko, plus news this year of a copy of Ocean Rain getting sent up into space). With The Fountain as their 11th studio album, Echo & the Bunnymen, while certainly sounding more 'mature', have at the same time lost much of what made them exciting previously. Though The Independent claims "the Mac is back and he and fellow Bunnyman Will Sergeant have not sounded this fired up since Ocean Rain in 1984", I find The Guardian's "most accessible offering in a long time" closer to the truth. This is not at all a bad album - in fact, it makes for quite an enjoyable listen, and tracks like "Think I Need It Too" and "Life of 1,000 Crimes" are just as good as any solid Echo track of the past, taking earlier catchy poppiness to greater heights all the while. My trouble with The Fountain is too many of the tracks sound similar to each other and there is not that element of randomness, and poetic power, that was key to their great 80s albums. This album shares more in common with Ian McCulloch's solo works, especially Candleland, which is, again, not exactly a bad thing, but I can't help but be a tad disappointed.

Now THIS is an album. The Flaming Lips are one of the most important bands in my musical life, attached to memories of early concerts, being invited to visit them on Halloween as a kid (I have a picture to prove it!), and in most recent years getting a written response from Wayne Coyne on A Christmas on Mars postcard. As much as I've enjoyed the band's 2000s works, I was waiting for a new album from them to come along and blow me away as before and, well, Embryonic is it! From the opener "Convinced of the Hex", you ought to know that you are in for something special. This is probably the darkest work in the Flaming Lips' canon yet, their previous sarcasm and, dare I say, whimsy turning into something gloomier, and at times, more sinister. The production on this is gorgeous, another welcome sign in 2009 that the whole loudness war nonsense is hopefully coming to a close. Embryonic is fantastic through-and-through, though track highlights include the somber "Evil", mystically groovy "See the Leaves", "I Can Be a Frog" (which recalls their 90s work to a certain extent), and ending track "Watching the Planets", easily one of their most epic moments ever. The Flaming Lips haven't stopped their work with one of the best albums of 2009 either - they're already at work on another project: covering Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in full!

Remix Corner: This is a new, and likely regular, section here at A Future in Noise. I've started to get more and more remixes in my inbox and I think there ought to be a proper space to highlight the best and promote them! More next week...check this out for now:
Jay-Z Feat. Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Mikey Mic Remix): Better than the original, and quite danceable too! You can also visit the newly launched MikeyMic.com and follow him on Twitter.