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Coyne is a shrewd observer of human nature, and an even shrewder songwriter and this album stands as his greatest and most varied work yet.
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FilterEach consecutive [song] is stranger than the last. [#19, p.88]
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Los Angeles TimesThe weird part is how well this stuff holds together, a delirious jumble of android psychedelia and Coyne's elliptical wordplay that goes down as easily as warm milk (spiked with acid). [26 Mar 2006]
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While Wayne Coyne has been carving out and presenting to the world the manifestations of his crazy mind for an age now, the possibilities have so often been superior to the finished article. That is certainly not the case here.
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Rolling StoneThe Lips' spacious attack feels a little tired. [6 Apr 2006, p.64]
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At War With The Mystics is impossible to digest in a single listen; it's a true headphone album that demands attention and rewards the patient with unexpected delights.
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At War With the Mystics falls short of being a masterpiece, but the more you listen to it, the more it adds up.
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While it’s not another masterpiece, it does surpass much of the group’s previous work, which it sounds related to, but not similar to.
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Entertainment WeeklyMuch of the CD is both beautiful and heartfelt. [7 Apr 2006, p.59]
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Their most organic-sounding album since 1995's "Clouds Taste Metallic."
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It's astonishing how the band are unafraid to take on Serious Issues yet remain so much fun.
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Ultimately, if a Flaming Lips didn't include a high degree of experimentation, you'd be disappointed. Yet when they keep things simple, such as the closing piano led Goin' On, the results are magnificent.
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While the band has always played around with a variety of sounds, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of songwriting, most of Mystics doesn't measure up.
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The earthbound, anxious and somewhat pissed-off attitude is what stands out and makes the strongest impression.
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The strongest feeling I get from At War With The Mystics is that it's a wank riddled parody amalgam of The Flaming Lips back catalogue, focusing on the earlier stuff.
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Tak[es] on the state of global affairs in a way that is both surprisingly direct yet somehow reassuringly weird.
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Sonically, the album picks up exactly where the Lips left off with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: heavy on the pop psychedelics, occasionally odd without being inaccessible.
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This is a band that, rightfully, just sounds tired.
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The way that Mystics bounces back and forth between its ethereal and zany moments gives it a disjointed, uneven feel that makes the album a shade less satisfying than either Yoshimi or Soft Bulletin.
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Coyne and company may have reached the limits of what cartoon universalism can do, but beneath the random bombast on Mystics--which frequently sounds like Steely Dan as heard from the other end of a machine shop--there's some Pink Floyd-styled moodiness and '70s singer-songwriter melodicism that suggests new areas for the band to explore.
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This is the sound of a band run dry.
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MojoA record of jarring juxtapositions, a bunch of cool tunes that could[n't] care less about how they fit together. [Apr 2006, p.86]
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The Flaming Lips' most effortless and varied exploration of their charming and profound tongue to date.
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That it’s a certainty for inclusion in critical end-of-year top tens is a given.
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BlenderWhile their protest cries tilt feebly into goofball psychedelic funk, a lush poignancy bubbles up on the more ruminative tracks. [May 2006, p.110]
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Alternative PressEver wonder what an all-star band featuring Burt Bacharach, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd would sound like stoned on the final reel of 2001: A Space Odyssey? [May 2006, p.172]
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Whatever thematic consistency existed on Yoshimi or Soft Bulletin is completely absent here. Or just so vague and bloated that the sentiment’s useless.
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Under The RadarThe wondrous beauty of Yoshimi hasn't been abandoned entirely... but the fighting spirit throughout At War With The Mystics is what truly sustains it. [#13, p.85]
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UrbMystics still has plenty of weird, shining moments to solidify the band's unique spot in rock, but the schizophrenia may leave you a bit jarred. [Apr 2006, p.84]
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A wonderful record that is flawed - that'll be those flatulent synths again - but by design.
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SpinAt War is gnarlier and a bit less tuneful than the group's previous two CDs. But the arrangements, and Dave Fridmann's signature blend of clarity and overmodulation, remain intricately weird. [Apr 2006, p.89]
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UncutMake no mistake, the Lips have done it: three astonishing LPs in a row. [May 2006, p.94]
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Those farty sounds and the guy with the deeeeeeeeeep voice on "It Overtakes Me" are called "bells and whistles." That's what bands do when they don't have anything to say.
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It covers too much ground, spreads its inventive energies too thin.
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Q MagazineIt's a record that might even disappoint on first listen, but one that reveals many subtleties and wonders over time. [May 2006, p.118]
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What makes At War With the Mystics different is spontaneity -- and not spontaneity in a jazz sense. Listening to this album you get the feeling that absolutely anything could happen -- as if it's taking final form only as it reverberates off your eardrums.
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At War with the Mystics is as accessibly odd as Yoshimi but more scattered and darker.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 123 out of 156
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Mixed: 23 out of 156
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Negative: 10 out of 156
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Feb 7, 2013
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Sep 25, 2020Man what an album. A nice mix of space rock, psychedelic rock, and dream pop. Good stuff I dare say!
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Jun 20, 2016