“Free Radicals” by The Flaming Lips

Song of the Week

Patrick Mackenzie

hae from The Flaming Lips’
2006 release At War with Mystics,
“Free Radicals” like most of the
recording it comes from, is a departure
from the Lips’ output of the last ten
years. Leaving behind their inclination
towards experimentation, “Free
Radicals” is, in essence, a sparse, back
to basics, primitive rock song.

Initially, the song begins with a
fuzzed-out guitar buzzing away with
the treble turned up to 11. Likewise,
Wayne Coyne’s vocals are presented
in his trademark falsetto, which seems
to ballast the song in a funky vein
reminiscent of Prince. And it is in this
funky, bizarrely sexy zone where “Free
Radicals” spends its time until drums
and bass puncture the song with a deep

end that steers it into hard rock territory.

Vacillating between the high-pitched
vocals and the full on assault of drums
and bass, the song sounds like a battle
for dominance between two opposing
forces (Editor’s note: Lately, the Lips
have taken to crowding the sides of
their stage with opposing groups of
Santas and aliens).

Perhaps this is not an accident.

Providing a seemingly ironic
commentary on the insane and usually
masculine impulse that charges us into
war, Coyne’s singing style stands in
bemused contrast to the war-like, and
presumably deep=voiced; fools who
willingly deal in death and judgment.

A cursory glance at the lyrics
suggests the song’s barbs are directed
at those operating under any radical
ideology: “you think you’re so radical/
I think you outta stop/ but you’re
going international/ they’re gonna
call the cops.” But the question needs
to be asked: who exactly is going
international here? Other parts of the
song seem to undermine any attempt
to provide a singular and specific
answer—such as this one, “You're
turning into a poor man’s Donald
Trump.”

So who are these radicals threatening
the peace of the world: Islamic fascists,
capitalist fascists? For The Flaming
Lips, there does not seem to be too
much distinction between the two.
Rather, they are two sides of the same
Coyne.

 

 

 

 

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