Thursday, August 27, 2009

Rock of Ages: The Flaming Lips - "Do You Realize??" (2002)

The Flaming Lips' 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was a watershed moment for my life as a fan of music. I've always known the Flaming Lips for their 90's one hit wonder "She Don't Use Jelly" and never new much of their prolific psych rock. With Yoshimi, they ushered in a new era of cool psych rock. It was poppy and futuristic as well as intricate and bizarre. Embedded on this album is one of the most straightforward and beautiful songs of the new millennium. The existential anthem "Do You Realize??" is a moving pop song that is transcendent and important to this generation. The songs beautiful chorus depicts perfectly the optimistic feeling of the music and definitely shows the power behind the message:

"And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round"

Amongst the goregous lyrics of "Do You Realize??" is equally beautiful orchestration. It's a sweeping anthem that is laden with strings and a beautfiully easy and strum-alongable chord progression making this song a peftect sing-a-long song of finding the beauty in life no matter how short it may be or how futile it may sound sometimes. Wayne Coyne hits the nail on the head on existential galactic wonderment. It's easy to question existence in the face of the universe, but it's beautiful to appreciate it and to understand that every moment is important. "Do You Realize??" is the new generations most uplifting track.



Up Next: Queens of the Stoneage enlist one of the greatest drummers of all time

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