The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Critic Score
Based on 33 reviews
2009 Ratings: #173 / 923
Year End Rank: #15
User Score
Based on 454 ratings
2009 Rank: #52
Liked by 60 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

91
A.V. Club

Embryonic presents a band discovering that the far edge of an idea is often more compelling than its core.

90
Spectrum Culture

Most excitingly, Embryonic eagerly promises that The Flaming Lips’ best work may not lie behind them–as much of this decade has suggested–but has yet to be seen.

90
Alternative Press

Embryonic is an album full of little revolutions--a trippier, noisier, more experimental journey than the Flaming Lips have taken in forever.

90
Pitchfork

In a shocking turn, the Flaming Lips offer their most audacious undertaking since Zaireeka, an unrelentingly paranoid, static-soaked acid-rock epic.

90
NME
Ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one.
88
Paste
It's a wonderfully weird parade of sonic delights: an arresting consummation of the Lips' two-and-a-half decade career.
88
Coke Machine Glow

Embryonic works so staggeringly well because it's so unafraid to place itself in the lineage of unapologetically over-the-top rock albums.

80
Billboard

The act should be credited for not hewing to the tried-and-true formula it pretty much invented with previous releases but many of the double-disc's 18 tracks feel like they are embryonic rather than fully formed.

80
Uncut

Embryonic is certainly as exciting as anything produced by the psych rock underground this year.

80
Mojo
It's themes may be familiar, but its fine, dazzlingly outlandish music is fresh and utterly fearless.
80
NOW Magazine
Along with this requisite silliness come beautiful melodies (See The Leaves), exploding rock-out sections (The Ego's Last Stand) and catchy, laid-back guitar melodies (Silver Trembling Hands).
80
No Ripcord

Embryonic is a true 21st century freak-out and it's only appropriate to end this decade with such an ambitious, intrepid undertaking.

80
The Telegraph

There are numerous kooky delights in the The Flaming Lips' Embryonic.

80
AllMusic

Little about Embryonic is clear-cut or straightforward -- these noisy, pensive, sometimes meandering songs take awhile to decipher and often feel like they're still in the process of becoming. These very qualities, however, make these songs some of the Flaming Lips most haunting and intriguing music in some time.

80
musicOMH

To write it off too early would be criminal, as Embryonic represents The Flaming Lips at their most awkward, most engaging, and most creative.

80
Tiny Mix Tapes

What The Flaming Lips have accomplished with Embryonic is impossible to ignore: an ambitious double album in an age where the single is making a comeback, a collection of music that makes a 25-year-old band sound vital and new.

79
Beats Per Minute

Had Wayne Coyne just accepted that he’s an oddball songsmith instead of the wizard of weird, Embryonic would have been much better.

75
Prefix
A certain amount of reassurance in the power of The Flaming Lips comes with each of the band's album releases, and this one is no different.
70
Under the Radar

Embryonic is the band’s 12th album and it’s a monster. At 18 tracks and well over an hour running time, it is everything you have come to expect from The Flaming Lips—psychedelic soundscapes, ethereal textures, electronic touches, falsetto vocals, philosophical musings, and so much more.

70
Consequence of Sound

Embryonic goes in a lot of new and interesting places but lands nowhere in particular.

60
The Guardian

For all its flaws and failings, for all that you may never feel like listening to it again, it's hard not to be perversely glad Embryonic exists.

60
The Observer

Embryonic is certainly not without charm, but its title gives the game away. Largely, it's the sound of a band seeking inspiration rather than finding it.

BradTasteMusic
87

My first experience with the flaming lips. This is certainly a great place to start. What a colorful and exciting album :)

maryfreegirl
85

on a flaming lips kick today ahah, this album feels darker than yoshimi, i preferred this one as of now cause it was even more psychedelic, weird and explosive (kinda reminded me of swans at some points), but i love both for different reasons, great band so far 👍

Stankysauce
93

The introduction to Embryonic is quite a bit different than anything the band had really done prior. This is a psych and garage rock rager. With a lot of meditative grooves and hypnotic, repetitive riffs and vocal lines. I like this a lot, it's kind of like the more rock oriented stuff from their previous album but executed better.
Aquarius Sabotage sounds like just a 2 minute little jam, but holy fuck it goeeeees. It's also super psychedelic and very experimental.
Songs like Gemini Syringes ... read more

Cobalt6
98

Nearly perfect

depechemode4lif
86

Embryonic may not have the tight consistency of Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin, but this double album sees the Lips at arguably one of their most experimental corners of their career. Bouncing back for it's predecessor, this album is more adventurous and a more intriguing listen throughout. A very great record in their catalog.

payton_vevo
88

just as ambitious as soft bulletin or yoshimi, and a mostly very well-executed darker sound for the flaming lips to try

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