The Terror (album)

Production

Lead vocalist Wayne Coyne described the album's general idea in a press release, "We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on... we just go on… there is no mercy killing."

Much of the album was shaped by multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd's relapse, with Coyne saying of his relapse: "During the Heady Fwends collaborations, we knew he was struggling. I just knew it. But this time, he went and just said, 'I’m going to make this music and hope I get through it.' It was not to make a record. I’m doing so much stuff in Studio A [at Dave Fridmann’s Tarbox Studios]. And Steven would hole up in Studio B: 'Well, I’m going to do music over here because I’m going insane.'" Later in that same interview, he says "The lesson that we learned — and we learned this and then forgot it at least 20 fucking times since 1983 when we started making records — anytime that you veer away from the thing that you love, the thing that’s like masturbating, the thing that’s like sitting in the corner drooling on yourself, anytime you drift away from that, it really becomes a different kind of art. It becomes about fixing things, arranging things, trying to manipulate things for effect. We like to do that and I think oftentimes we’re good at that, but it’s not nearly as satisfying as the other type of art."

When asked about the optimism of the album and the band's work in general, Coyne says "I don’t really believe anyone who walks home and says, “Everything’s okay.” The reason we’re optimistic is that a lot of things aren’t great and we have to find a way to get through it… I don’t want someone to listen and only hear that I’m just some scared old man. Well… I am, but I don’t always sing about that. It is focusing on a particular dimension in our minds that this music on The Terror goes towards, which is darker. But at the end, it makes that optimism even more believable. We were in Australia in January and I swam in the ocean for only the second time in my life. You know you’re going to get in there and it’s going to be kind of cold and these waves are big. There’s a time where you’ve got to go from being very dry and very warm to being very wet and very cold. But if you get through that, it’s a fucking blast and you really feel this braveness. You’re in the waves and fighting against the waves. So I think now we’re kind of like that: “Fuck you, bring it on, motherfuckers.” It’s huge and immense, but we’re not so vulnerable. It’s better to be scared and do it than to be scared and not do it.

Reception

The Terror received mostly positive reviews from critics, with a score of 77 on metacritic, citing "Generally favorable feviews"

The review from The A.V. Club, states "The Terror is the sound of The Flaming Lips going from a group experience to an internal monologue, the perfect record for any fan who has ever felt like the band could use two “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”s for every “Race For The Prize.”

Stuart Berman of Pitchfork Magazine states "with The Terror, the Lips take the bold step of bursting their own bubble. The band’s unrelentlingly bleak new album relates to its predecessor much as Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots did to The Soft Bulletin, retaining its antecedent’s weighty mood but deconstructing the instrumental bombast into more skeletal, mechanical forms", but states later in the review "it still feels underdeveloped in spots. At 13 minutes, centerpiece track “You Lust” is the longest song to appear on a proper Lips record since the 1980s, and a companion piece to Embryonic’s “Powerless”, using a coolly repetitive organ refrain as the foundation for an agitated, free-form synth freakout. But its imposing grandeur is diffused by an intrusive, creepily whispered chorus incantation and a drifting, protracted denouement that lingers for far too long. And in the wake of the absorbing, slow-roiling intensity of the penultimate “Turning Violent”, the closing “Always There... In Our Heart” (a bookend echo of “Look… The Sun Is Rising”) doesn’t quite deliver the blown-out grand finale its repeated 1-2-3-4 build-ups suggest, instead simmering down before reaching full blast."

In popular culture

The bonus song from the album "Sun Blows Up Today", was featured in a 2013 Hyundai Superbowl commercial.

Track listing

iTunes exclusive tracks

UK exclusive bonus disc

Personnel

The Flaming Lips

• Wayne Coyne – vocals, guitar, synthesizers
• Michael Ivins – bass, keyboards
• Steven Drozd – guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, bass, drums, vocals
• Kliph Scurlock – drums, percussion
• Derek Brown – keyboards, guitar

Guest performers

• Phantogram – additional vocals and music

Production

• The Flaming Lips – production, mix, recording
• Dave Fridmann – production, mix, recording, mastering
• Scott Booker – production
• Michael Ivins – additional engineering
• Mack Hawkins – additional engineering, recording & mixing

Packaging

• George Salisbury – layout and design

Charts

References

References

1. "The Flaming Lips unleash "The Terror" on Monday 1st April 2013". Bella Union.
2. "Pre-order The Flaming Lips' New Album The Terror Now!". Warner Bros. Records.
3. Berman, Stuart. (April 16, 2013). "The SPIN Interview: The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne". [[Spin (Magazine).
4. Berman, Stuart. (April 16, 2013). "The SPIN Interview: The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne". [[Spin (Magazine).
5. "The Terror by The Flaming Lips reviews". AnyDecentMusic?.
6. "Reviews for The Terror by The Flaming Lips". [[Metacritic]].
7. Phares, Heather. "The Terror – The Flaming Lips". [[AllMusic]].
8. Adams, Erik. (April 16, 2013). "The Flaming Lips: The Terror". [[The A.V. Club]].
9. Kot, Greg. (April 15, 2013). "Album review: The Flaming Lips, 'The Terror'". [[Chicago Tribune]].
10. (April 12, 2013). "Singles and Albums: April 19, 2013".
11. Simpson, Dave. (March 28, 2013). "The Flaming Lips: The Terror – review". [[The Guardian]].
12. Price, Simon. (March 31, 2013). "Album: Flaming Lips, The Terror (Bella Union)". [[The Independent]].
13. Horton, Matthew. (April 2, 2013). "The Flaming Lips – 'The Terror'". [[NME]].
14. Berman, Stuart. (April 4, 2013). "The Flaming Lips: The Terror". [[Pitchfork (website).
15. Fricke, David. (April 16, 2013). "The Terror".
16. Tedder, Michael. (April 15, 2013). "The Flaming Lips, 'The Terror' (Warner Bros.)". [[Spin (magazine).
17. Berman, Stuart. (April 4, 2013). "The Flaming Lips: The Terror". [[Pitchfork (website).
18. "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 22 April 2013 (Issue #1208)". [[Australian Recording Industry Association]].
19. link. [[Oricon]]