#The flaming lips my cosmic autumn rebellion full

The prolific Oscar nominee (!) has graced us with an abundance of wonderfully titled tracks over the years, but I’ve plumped for the second song from his breakthrough record Illinois or, to give it its full title, Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise. I mean, this list could just be a collection of Sufjan songs really, couldn’t it? Maybe it will be, I haven’t decided yet.

#The flaming lips my cosmic autumn rebellion how to

Sufjan Stevens – ‘‘The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!’’’ Or, if you’d prefer, just skip to the end for a playlist full of songs with really long titles. Given Del Rey’s proclivity for lengthy titles, perhaps now is a good time to take a look back at some of the greats in the pantheon of really, really ridiculously long song titles. With a host of lyrical references to everything from Sylvia Plath to the iPad, the track is prototypical Del Rey, sharp and sombre against the backdrop of Jack Antonoff’s piano. And the bevy of bonus material includes two videos, three outtakes (notably 'The Captain'), four songs from radio sessions, and the psychedelic, eye-candy 'Bleep-Blops' that accompany the main songs.Lana Del Rey has just released her latest single, the fantastically titled ‘hope is dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it’. Whatever the results, it's clear that Fridmann and the Lips threw themselves into this project with creative gusto - after all, the booklet provides explanatory '5.1 Mix Maps' for all the songs. However, 'A Spoonful Weighs a Ton' leaps to three-dimensional life, with jolting front-to-rear drum tracks set against more serene, stable orchestration. I prefer the stereo 'Race for the Prize' to the surround version's off-center placement of vocals and instruments the song is too good to be subjected to such gimmickry. That's not entirely an endorsement, though.

The Lips and coproducer/engineer Dave Fridmann collaborated on the mix, and the results are colorfully unconventional. Meanwhile, a surround mix of their 1999 album has been released as The Soft Bulletin 5.1 in a CD+DVD-Audio edition. If you relished the multichannel mix of the Lips' previous opus, 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, you'll be happy to know that a surround version of At War with the Mystics is due in the fall. The album concludes with 'Goin' On,' a portentous portrait of a world on the brink of self-annihilation that is majestically sad yet tentatively hopeful. 'Haven't Got a Clue' is a beguiling mixture of straightforward and disorienting music in which Coyne plainly sings, 'Every time you state your case / The more I want to punch your face.' And 'The W.A.N.D.' sounds an anthemic call to action with a wickedly noisy riff. Coyne poses big questions about ultimate motives in 'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,' and he makes like an agitated Prince in 'Free Radicals,' castigating fanatics on all sides. Philosophical musings abound, but so do exhortations to fight the power. Note that the parenthetical subtitle for the lovely, melancholic 'My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion' is 'The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance, and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action.' With everything at stake, Coyne holds nothing back. It's a mixed-up, shook-up record, to be sure, with grungy riffing, robotic noise, and atmospheric dissonance counterpointed by exquisite melodies, wistful soundscapes, and clear-headed lyrics. By engaging and combating real-world issues with every iota of artistic ordnance they can muster, the Lips have made their best album. In essence, the Lips use words and music as a weapon for metaphysical overthrow of the diseased body politic. It is these Okie freaks' equivalent of Pink Floyd's Orwellian bent on Animals or (dare I say) The Dark Side of the Moon. This isn't an obvious 'Bush Is Bad' protest record but rather a profound statement of anger, sorrow, and disenchantment.

The Flaming Lips - chief conceptualist Wayne Coyne and multi-instrumentalists Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins - have come to their own reckoning in this matter, and At War with the Mystics is their rebuttal to the forces shaping our traumatized world. But when the apocalypse is pointed at your head like Dick Cheney's rifle, quiet capitulation is no longer an option. Most people would prefer to lead their own lives and not get drawn into the shoddy worlds of power, politics, religious fanaticism, and wars of aggression.