The Flaming Lips
King’s Mouth
[Warner Records]
The story that serves as the spine of King’s Mouth, the first true concept album from Oklahoma City’s finest, was first presented as part of frontman Wayne Coyne’s “immersive head-trip fantasy experience” of the same name. The project saw spectators welcomed to walk into a gargantuan metal head where they were treated to an audio-visual experience soundtracked by a 14-minute medley of sorts, drawn from the tracks that make up King’s Mouth’s 41-minute runtime.
Considering the LP’s origins – essentially as a DVD special feature to supplement the contents of grotesque alien’s skull – it makes for a remarkably breezy listen; flitting as it does between the toe-tapping glitch folk associated with crossover hit Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and the Lips’ tone-driven, ambient impulses.
In truth, the specifics of the King’s Mouth’s narrative, fun as they may be (humongous alien princes devouring the universe etc etc), are of little import. Somewhat improbably, it seems the more absurdly grandiose and esoteric the lyrical allusion the more effective a tool it is for Coyne to explore the preoccupations that colour his most acclaimed and lasting work: the beauty of life, the inevitability of death and the fragility of the membrane that separates them. Ultimately, what should be a footnote in an already crowded discography ends up as something entirely more satisfying than it has any right to be.
Words: Danny Wilson
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