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While "American Head," the Flaming Lips' sixteenth album, was well-received and even compared to the band's turn of the millennium peak of "The Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," I think that praise is overdoing it a little. "Flowers of Neptune 6"****, which mourns the loss of innocence that comes from watching the misfortunes of those close to you, has a dramatic grandeur, and "You n Me Sellin' Weed" **** is a poignant tale from the perspective of an young American blue-collar couple, like "Livin' On A Prayer" for the 2020's. Opening track "Will You Return / When You Come Down" has a spacey melancholy that is pleasant enough and is no preparation for the wrenching lines "And they scream, Screaming from beyond, Hear their song, Now all your friends are gone." And Kacey Musgraves delivers a dreamy chant on "Watching the Lightbugs Glow," in the tradition of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky." These are some strong moments on the album, and Steven Drozd, still the band's instrumental secret weapon, adds striking melodic accents throughout.
The ingredients that made "The Soft Bulletin" such a landmark album seem to be there, and those songs I mentioned would sound right at home on it. But one would have to be oblivious to ignore a couple unfortunate issues with the album. First, nearly every song is at the same slow-rock tempo, resembling "Wish You Were Here" but more piano-centric; when played together in one sitting they all run together into one dreary session. The only exceptions are electronic instrumental "When We Die When We're High" (in the tradition of Pink Floyd again, "On The Run"), and the vaguely 70's folk-rock verse passages of "Assassins of Youth." Second, too many tracks are surprisingly shabby. "Mother I've Taken LSD" and "My Religion Is You" are merely good lyrical ideas with poor melodic execution, the emotional impact of "Mother Please Don't Be Sad" (surprise, another meditation on death) is derailed by its rather silly bridge, and finally "God and the Policeman," featuring a whole lotta auto-tuned sounding Kacey Musgraves, doesn't work in any way.
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