The Flaming Lips have never been a band to shy away from ambitious cover projects. From Kylie Minogue to Led Zeppelin, MGMT to Madonna, the group have revelled in spinning their signature psychedelic rock all over your favourite popular songs. No matter how successful a band, however, it is always a minefield when coming to cover the work that influenced your own so profoundly – yes, homage is paid, but such emphasis is placed on the differences between the two that it is easy for the group recording the cover to fall short of the mark.
To this end, we need only look at The Flaming Lips’ own back catalogue. In 2009 the group released a track-for-track cover of The Dark Side of The Moon, with mixed results. Although die-hard fans appreciated the boldness of the move, and certain tracks did stand out as evidence that this was a notably innovative take on a well-established masterpiece –this was, in itself, the problem. The Dark Side of the Moon remains as an extremely iconic, undeniably influential album, it is omnipresent in the public consciousness, and, as such, any parody of it, however innovative, could never quite become a success in its own right. But as established before, The Flaming Lips are nothing if they aren’t ambitious.
Quite predictably, the thirteen-track album performs in peaks and troughs across its 51-minute listening time.
Enter their latest project – a complete cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As one of the most culturally, historically and musically significant albums of all time, the Lips really have set themselves a challenge. The motivation for this cover, assumedly, is to reimagine these seminal Beatles’ tracks in such a way as to recreate the effect that listeners would have experienced upon hearing Sgt. Pepper’s for the first time in 1967. Noting the psychedelic, intoxicating nature of The Flaming Lips’ own work, it seems that there be would be no other band as apt for the challenge today. The real difficulty with this record is producing something that is at once experimental, out there, full of surprises, whist also being genuinely and consistently enjoyable to listen to. Quite predictably, the thirteen-track album performs in peaks and troughs across its 51-minute listening time.
Where it’s successful, With A Little Help From My Fwends captures all the momentous zeal of Sgt. Pepper’s revolutionary impact and spits it out again as a wonderfully, inventively, original soundscape.
Where it’s successful, With A Little Help From My Fwends captures all the momentous zeal of Sgt. Pepper’s revolutionary impact and spits it out again as a wonderfully, inventively, original soundscape. ‘Fixing A Hole’, for example, is spun away from harpsichords and brass towards ethereal electronic movements and high and haunting vocals. ‘Lovely Rita’, too, mirrors the structure of the original whilst bringing a stripped-back drum track, pulsing synth and a bubblegum-pop vocal finish to the table. Most successful of all comes ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’, which blows up the original into a 5-minute jamming session that, excusing the Doors-esque synth-solos, wouldn’t seem out of place on a Tame Impala record. These become versions that are, though perhaps not better than the originals, discernible songs with their own qualities.
….the vocals on ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, which oscillate between auto-tuned melody and strident screeching, become trying; the slow and brooding interpretation of ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ becomes boring…
Unfortunately, this is not the case for every track, or even the majority of the tracks for that matter. Granted, most are interesting to listen to – the expectation of what will happen next is palpable the first time round. After a few listens, however, this novelty wears off, and, with the exception of the tracks mentioned above (as well as some other mentionables, such as ‘She’s Leaving Home’, perhaps), it is left that these covers do not stand on their own as efficacious creations. The brazen determination of the title track to not conform to your expectation becomes annoying; the vocals on ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, which oscillate between auto-tuned melody and strident screeching, become trying; the slow and brooding interpretation of ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ becomes boring. Even the appearance of Miley Cyrus on tracks like ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ is not enough to sustain the immediate, but ultimately short-lived appeal of this adventurous album.
Even the appearance of Miley Cyrus on tracks like ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ is not enough to sustain the immediate, but ultimately short-lived appeal of this adventurous album.
Overall, the merit of With A Little Help From My Fwends lies within the vision and creativity with which The Flaming Lips have approached this endeavour. As a concept, it is interesting to listen to; it is, at first, exciting to have your expectations played around with – as a finished record it is novel at best.
James Noble
James is listening to: ‘By The Sea’ by Bobby McFerrin
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