Search - The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs :: The Flaming Lips And Stardeath And White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins And Peaches Doing Dark Side Of The Moon

Robert V. from FLANDERS, NJ
Reviewed on 12/27/2014...

Competent but unneccesary remake of a classic. I wish the Flaming Lips would just concentrate on creating new music, instead of wasting their time on these sort of side projects.

The Freakish Multicolored Side of the Moon

A. Ricciuti | 05/11/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is an amazingly powerful and passionate album about the anxieties of the human race. "The Flaming Lips and Star Death and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing Dark Side of the Moon" is something quite different. I am not blown away by the power and passion of it. I'm more impressed by its weirdness and originality than anything.



Let's start at the beginning. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side" opens with eerie sound effects and voices before easing into a mellow slide guitar tune ("Breathe") that I find very relaxing. To contrast, this album's version of "Breathe" is a loud bass-driven space-rocker, the slide guitar replaced with an array of strange, dissonent guitar noises that give the sensation of taking off in a rocketship. Interestingly, it sounds somewhat like Barrett-era Floyd.



The rest of the songs are full of weird surprises, some of which are more succesful than others. The highlight is probably The Flaming Lips' "Us and Them". While the Pink Floyd original is a dramatic epic that sounds like it has been made to fill a stadium, the version on this album has been made quiet, with Wayne Coyne sounding totally alone in a small room on the outside of which the world is collapsing. On the other hand, there's "Money", which has also been left to The Flaming Lips, who have turned it into an annoying robo-funk jam monstrocity.



This is no generic, "faithful" re-production. Some might even complain that the songs have been butchered, but I believe that so-called butchery is part of the art of making fresh interpretations of old songs. I don't want a Pink Floyd nugget with Flaming Lips sauce all over it, I want a new nugget with good cuts of both Flaming Lips AND Pink Floyd meat in it."

A Mixed Bag Of The Moon

Alan Caylow | USA | 05/13/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I love the Flaming Lips, and I love Pink Floyd. Knowing that Pink Floyd are a huge influence on the Lips, you'd think that Wayne Coyne & company would hit their cover version of the Floyd classic, "Dark Side Of The Moon," right out of the park. Right? Well, not exactly. The Lips' take on "Dark Side" is really sick & twisted, in both great ways AND not-so-great ways. It's a real mixed bag. On the positive side, the Lips' musicianship and studio prowess are still in top form---and if you're gonna cover this legendary Floyd album, you'd *better* be in top form---and the two standout tracks for me are the two that are most faithful to the Floyd original: "The Great Gig In The Sky" (featuring a scorching vocal turn by singer Peaches), and a totally slammin', barnburning workout of the instrumental "Any Colour You Like." And getting the one-and-only Henry Rollins to do all of the spoken-word stuff is truly inspired casting.



As for the rest of the album, which is *drastically* altered by Coyne & company from the Floyd originals...."Breathe" and "On The Run" are a little bit jarring; the soft, acoustic remake of "Time" is, sorry to say, pretty boneheaded; the electronic, punch-drunk rendering of "Money" is....amusing (I suppose), and "Us And Them", minus *both* the percussion AND the classic echo effect on the lead vocals, just kinda lies there. However, the concluding "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" come off okay (I guess).



So, to sum up, dear reader: The Flaming Lips' reworking of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" ain't gonna make you forget the classic original album, but, if nothing else, it's certainly interesting. The Lips' tribute to Floyd is well appreciated, and I'll give the Lips points for effort. Do you like the Flaming Lips and/or Pink Floyd? You do? Then go ahead and buy it. Why not."