- Record Label: Warner Bros.
- Release Date: Jun 26, 2012
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May 30, 2012Their [the guest artists'] fresh influx of ideas on The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends creates new flavor profiles for the band's loopy psychedelic slurry.
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Jun 28, 2012Heady Fwends, rather inexplicably, plays much like a proper follow-up to their 2009 mindfuck Embryonic, and their ability not only to bring a project like this together at all, but to make it work so cohesively and effectively, is as strong a testament as any to their genius.
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May 30, 2012What at first seems rather silly actually proves to be quite purposeful.
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Jul 30, 2012This is actually one of the Lips' more coherent efforts, despite its wild diversity and devil-may-care attitude.
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Jul 30, 2012One day, maybe the Lips will play nice again. Until then, they and their Fwends have given us plenty to get our heads around.
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Jul 23, 2012It's a captivating mix of material, yet hangs together well and has a surprisingly easy flow.
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Jul 5, 2012Anticipation has been high for the album's official release, and Heady Fwends doesn't disappoint.
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Jun 27, 2012The stunning cover is the most beautiful and cohesive on what is an otherwise (understandably) uneven collection which, while definitely appealing to hardcore fans, might be a bit too out there for casual listeners.
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UncutJun 1, 2012A terrific package. [Jul 2012, p.71]
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May 30, 2012The triumph of Heady Fwends lies the way it sands off the rough edges off 2011's excess and whittles an honest, enjoyable set out of the mire while coaxing a wealth of unexpected voices into the fray without losing its way.
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Jul 31, 2012[The album is] a reminder of musically, just what a great band the Flips themselves actually are.
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Jul 5, 2012As it stands, it's still quite a special document and points a direction for the possibilities of a collaborative record when serious creativity comes to the fore.
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Jun 25, 2012It all adds up to a deeply deranged and intermittently great listen, and serves as a decent stopgap 'til the band's next album proper.
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Jun 22, 2012For sheer frazzled sonics and sci-fi future textures, Heady Fwends can't be beat. Actual songs are few and far between, and anyone looking for heart-stopping melodies will be disappointed. But if you're in the mood for a 70-minute aural assault, listen no further.
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May 30, 2012It works more often then it doesn't, but when digested as a whole, it's hard to think of an album released this year that is as wall-to-wall memorable as The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, flaws and all.
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Jun 27, 2012It may all cohere together, but it doesn't all work.
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Q MagazineAug 20, 2012The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends runs the risk of turning into a cluttered affair, but what unfolds is an atmosphere of uninhibited adventure. [Sep 2012, p.100]
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MojoAug 8, 2012The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends was the perfect Record Store Day artefact--dramatising the value and mystique of physical recordings. [Sep 2012, p.94]
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Jul 26, 2012Beneath the sludge and churning distortions, however, is a characteristically generous squaring-up to life's horror and humanity that is worth excavating.
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Jul 25, 2012The best moments are those which eschew any attempt to write proper 'songs' and instead simply try to convince the listener that he or she is travelling on an epic, wobbly, thrilling and frightening, mind-expanding journey through outer space.
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Jun 25, 2012The songs on Fwends swing between rejoicing and dread, sometimes within the same piece of music. The sky is falling, the Lips want to remind us, and it might not be just an acid flashback.
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Jun 26, 2012It seldom gathers enough momentum, and doesn't feel the least bit cohesive.
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Jun 28, 2012Heady Fwends has racked up about one song's worth of decent material-only none of it is in the same song.
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Aug 1, 2012The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends is a flatulent folly, humming with the sulphurous reek of self-indulgence.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 23
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Mixed: 4 out of 23
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Negative: 0 out of 23
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Dec 17, 2015
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Jul 25, 2012