Two Geeks Three Cats

I've just finished listening to the album-long cover version of Pink Floyd's 1973 space-rock masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon as reimagined by the Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs. It came out on December 22, but I have just gotten around to downloading it. I blame iTunes.

The Dark Side of the Moon was the first Pink Floyd album I heard - I imagine it was the first for many - when I was a wee lad of 12 years old, and it established the Floyd as my favorite band of all time soon after. So when I heard that the Flaming Lips, one of my favorite bands active today, was tackling this, I was understandably excited. When I learned that they would be doing it with the help of Stardeath and White Dwarfs, an Oklahoma City band fronted by Lips leader Wayne Coyne's nephew Dennis - whom I saw open for the Lips on New Year's Eve 2008, and was pretty impressed - I was even more excited. I later learned that warrior-poet Henry Rollins and a Canadian singer named Peaches (who I wasn't familiar with) had contributed to the project as well. I was pumped. This had all the makings to be even better than my most recent favorite album-long cover, Japancakes' 2007 instrumental post-rock cover of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.

Having heard it now, finally, I can say that in general, I like it. No doubt there will be some diehard Floydoids out there who disagree. There will be complaints of the Lips trying to take away Floyd's masterpiece, and how they are not up to the challenge. They will say and post things like "How dare they!?" and call Coyne & Co. arrogant, and look down their noses at those of us who would even think of listening to such blasphemy.

I say rubbish. Whether you like it or not, you have to respect the effort here - not to mention the massive balls - to recreate one of the most influential, best loved and best selling albums of all time in your own image. And that is what is done here. The Flaming Lips have taken apart this album, song by song, and redesigned it into a Flaming Lips album, one that their fans would appreciate; and that is no crime. Because above all, it is clear that the Lips recognize the place Pink Floyd has in their own psychedelic, space-age, art-rock musical ancestry. The cover project is obviously a labor of, and done with, love.

Here's a breakdown of my opinions, song by song:

"Speak to Me" - At 50 seconds long, it's less than a minute shorter than the original version, but it feels much shorter. Henry Rollins' opening spoken word delivery sounds way too California-dude for the psychedelic sonic assault to follow. And the heartbeat reminds me far more of the heartbeat at the beginning and end of Jethro Tull's A Passion Play than the one on The Dark Side of the Moon.

"Breathe" - We have liftoff. The Lips have transformed the flowing, sleepy ethereality of the iconic overture track into a driving tribal freak-out worthy of their latest album, Embryonic, or the second disc of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. It is obvious now that they are going to do something to make this classic album their own, and I'm loving it. The Lips have actually managed to make this song sound like a call to action ("Don't be afraid to care!") instead of a nap in a lawn chair on a lazy afternoon.

"On the Run" - They've tempered the oscillating synthesizers of the original, evoking the same atmosphere in a way that is more musical, but not necessarily easier to listen to. I've got mixed feelings about this one, but will need to listen to it some more. They've also revised the airport voiceovers (barely audible in the Floyd original) with references to the Lips' hometown of OKC. Cool.

"Time" - The song starts off with sampled respiratory sound effects keeping time. I'm not crazy about it. Once the music starts, though, it's beautiful. Wayne Coyne delivers David Gilmour's vocals in a strained, mournful falsetto even higher than I've ever heard him sing before. Peaches completes the duet by coming in on the verses sung by the late Rick Wright in the original, with heartfelt indie-waif honesty. The thinness of both vocal parts fits the lyrical theme of fleeting hours, short lives, and impermanence very well. I only wish they would have kept a guitar solo between verses 2 and 3 like the original did - it's one of my favorite guitar solos in Floyd history.

"Breathe (Reprise)" - Brings us right back to the opening theme of the album. Again, even though it's only about 10 seconds shorter than the Floyd version (clocking in at about a minute), this one seems much shorter.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" - From the beginning, it's easy to feel good about this, another Lips reinvention of a classic tune. The familiar piano and slide guitar of the original has become a sweet, dreamy lullaby that would fit in well on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I don't even mind Rollins' flat delivery of some voiceover lines from the original. Once Peaches steps in to provide the wailing wordless vocals, though, it's clear that she is no Clare Torry. She does her best, but at times she's clearly in pain. The sudden change of the tune into some kind of crazed booty-funk, however, is brilliant.

Finally, because so many classic Pink Floyd songs have at least a part 1 and part 2 (and also this post would be intimidatingly long otherwise), I've held off on finishing my comments here. My opinions on "side 2" will be up tomorrow. Stay tuned!