The Flaming Lips

Embryonic

"We stand before you not knowing what we have done," Wayne Coyne says in the press notes announcing the bold Embryonic, the Flaming Lips' 12th full-length and first double album.

It's hard to imagine anyone else making

sense of it, either.

Embryonic floats and bubbles over the course of 18 tracks (two of which feature the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O.; another, the great "Worm Mountain," stars MGMT), but true to title, it's mostly formless.

That was Coyne and the Lips' intention, apparently -- to tap into the flow and forget the destination -- but atmosphere isn't one of the band's assets.

Embryonic is a series of forgettable soundscapes ("Sagittarius Silver Announcement") with the occasional burst of song life ("Silver Trembling Hands"). And no, things wouldn't have been any better if it all had been boiled down to one disc.

If anything, Embryonic needs more space to unfold; give it an attic, not a shelf in the closet.

It's still true: No one makes records like the Flaming Lips. If they're anything like "Embryonic," who wants to?

-- Michael Pollock, Philadelphia Inquirer