User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 30
  2. Negative: 1 out of 30
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  1. Sep 11, 2020
    10
    The Flaming Lips needed direction. Since 2009's Embryonic their albums have been marked by chaotic sounds and sonic digression. They've always been an experimental group, but it's gotten the better of them for much of the last decade. On American Head, they've focused their approach to deliver their most consistent album since Yoshimi in 2002. Their usual themes (life, death, the universe)The Flaming Lips needed direction. Since 2009's Embryonic their albums have been marked by chaotic sounds and sonic digression. They've always been an experimental group, but it's gotten the better of them for much of the last decade. On American Head, they've focused their approach to deliver their most consistent album since Yoshimi in 2002. Their usual themes (life, death, the universe) are here, but anchored by personal experience, which gives the songs a newfound resonance and weight. If this is the Lips reborn, their next chapter promises to be a great one! Expand
  2. Sep 11, 2020
    10
    Absolutely stunning. The ‘Lips creating a stellar record in line with The Soft Bulletin all the whole sounding sonically richer. One of the best records of the year.
  3. Sep 11, 2020
    9
    Lyrically American Head is a return to form with the dreamy melancholy nostalgia that filled their earlier work. Instrumentally it feels like a fresh new direction for the band with little influences from every previous album.
  4. Sep 17, 2020
    7
    ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎
  5. Sep 11, 2020
    9
    it is a very good a im a mario i write a review for the new flaming lips a.
  6. Sep 14, 2020
    8
    It has been many years since I've had expectations from The Flaming Lips.
    After the release of the solid At War with the Mystics, they went on a very fruitful but distant streak in quality.
    2013's The Terror was a really good album but American Head was an impressive surprise. The album itself doesn't have an epic song, nor a devastating single that will appeal to the masses, is not
    It has been many years since I've had expectations from The Flaming Lips.
    After the release of the solid At War with the Mystics, they went on a very fruitful but distant streak in quality.

    2013's The Terror was a really good album but American Head was an impressive surprise.

    The album itself doesn't have an epic song, nor a devastating single that will appeal to the masses, is not like that. However, American Head remembers the audiences, what it's to create an entire album that must be listened from beginning to end.

    That is what this album is. A journey.
    An atmospheric trip that catches you.

    American Head is a relaxing and rewarding album, but all of this is accomplished if you wish to immerse yourself in the experience.

    It's definitely their best album in years, especially as the music feels mature and cohesive again, something Wayne Coyne often loses sight of.

    However this time he has managed to silence me and has delivered a necessary album of very good music.

    Notable Tracks.

    > Will You Return / When You Come Down
    > Watching the Lightbugs Glow
    > Flowers of Neptune 6
    > At the Movies on Quaaludes
    > Mother Please Don't Be Sad
    > Assassins of Youth
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  7. Sep 3, 2021
    10
    Every song has unique value and will eventually be associated with your life at the time whenever you here them again. Their best album overall by far.
  8. Feb 6, 2021
    9
    After a decade of dabbling in the wayward experimental, prodigal psycho-proggers, The Flaming Lips have returned home with the modern-day jewel, American Head. After the garage-acid college radio days of the '80s and '90, the band created the triumphant triumvirate, The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and At War with the Mystics - three of the finest albums any band hasAfter a decade of dabbling in the wayward experimental, prodigal psycho-proggers, The Flaming Lips have returned home with the modern-day jewel, American Head. After the garage-acid college radio days of the '80s and '90, the band created the triumphant triumvirate, The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and At War with the Mystics - three of the finest albums any band has ever recorded in succession. They closed out the 2000s with the brilliant Embryonic, a supercharged experimental onslaught which would carve an even stranger path into the 2010s.

    Chalk it up to creative differences, ill-advised flights of fancy or indifference, but the 2010s were a decade that tried even the most ardent Flaming Lips fans. The terror of The Terror, the lethargy of Oczy Mlody, and the inanity of King's Mouth made most fans drift toward disinterest. The savvy stylings of the early 2020 collaboration with Deap Vally (see review here) gave fans a sign that a return to form was imminent. Now, with the real American Dream in complete chaos, the Lips provide their own, a sonic roadmap through the sadness, steering listeners across the landscape of loss with profundity and hope.

    Elegant and layered, the opening track "Will You Return/When You Come Down" is a piano and acoustic guitar-ladened masterwork. The initial refrain carries the doleful tune into an acoustic chord shift that drives the mood deeper. "Now, all your friends are dead. And their ghosts. Floating around your bed. Hear it said. Now all your friends are dead." In remembrance of all the death that fell before him over the years, Wayne Coyne laments the fact that he will not reunite with his fallen brethren in heaven or Valhalla. They are gone forever, and the weight of this realization crashes upon him in the song's crescendo. Underneath it all lies a cutting rhythm and gentleness reminiscent of Yoshimi and the Pink Robots.

    Thus lies the central theme of American Dream. It is a protocol on how to live one's life years after misspending one's youth. Do not fret, because a hopeful theme undercuts these songs. The pain of these remembrances is less sharp and even hopeful with those you love by your side. In an ocean of death, "You and me Selling Weed" and "My Religion is You" offer the illusion of salvation. On "Dinosaurs on the Mountain," Coyne brings to light the memory of traveling in his family's station wagon as a kid. Pretending the trees on the mountain are dinosaurs, he laments a time when one could simply imagine and create things in one's mind without repercussions of reality, which creeps in as adults.

    "Assassins of Youth" is as brilliant a Flaming Lips song that's been created in the last twenty years. A galloping pop jaunt through the tenets of rock and rhythm, there's a touch of Zeppelin and, to Coyne's admission, a touch of ABBA as well. "Mother, please Don't Be Sad" is another - a Bohemian Rhapsody-esque gem polished with soulful lyrics and other-worldly interludes.

    In American Head, the Flaming Lips have not quite come full circle as no journey of enlightenment ever truly ends at its source. Their journey is more like a spiral, and they've swooped by and tipped their caps to their former selves as they glide inward with a touching collection of songs ranking right up there with the best albums of 2020.
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  9. Sep 25, 2020
    10
    There is something to be said about a band who pushes all boundaries when it comes to music. American Head seems to focus on more orchestral psychedelic pop coupled with neo-psychedelic tendencies that does not seem all too different for a band who fall prey to their psychedelic tendencies. At the same time, this album is a total reinvention of what we would expect from them. While it isThere is something to be said about a band who pushes all boundaries when it comes to music. American Head seems to focus on more orchestral psychedelic pop coupled with neo-psychedelic tendencies that does not seem all too different for a band who fall prey to their psychedelic tendencies. At the same time, this album is a total reinvention of what we would expect from them. While it is trippy, it's poppier than any of their other releases, but that is what makes it so darn good. In fact, I would go as far to say that this is their best album. The flow is incredible, the songs are relatable, and the songs are more consistent. I don't find myself skipping any of these songs and I can't stop listening on repeat. Expand
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. The Wire
    Nov 6, 2020
    80
    They continue to surprise and enchant. [Sep 2020, p.52]
  2. 50
    I think the punk rock attitude is to not easily be impressed with technical musicianship that doesn’t make you feel much of anything. American Head didn’t hit me in the heart or in the gut, but it did make me want to go back and listen to “She Don’t Use Jelly” again and, if nothing else, that’s a positive that comes from this experience.
  3. Sep 25, 2020
    80
    American Head's individual tracks can be enjoyed separately, but the album is best enjoyed as a whole. Think of it as a meditation on family, friends, getting older, and the irony of feeling lost in the world the more one learns about it. It's a trip, a journey to the past that one doesn't want to return to but never wants to forget.