“How?”, the album’s second track, begins with the edict, “White trash rednecks, earthworms eat the ground / Legalize it, every drug right now.” The surreality of these lines feel like something out of Burroughs, projecting a world in which absurdity has become the fundamental state of affairs. Oczy Mlody feels, in many ways, like a reflection of the current zeitgeist, with a finger on the pulse of an America that increasingly feels like it’s in the depths of a bad shroom trip. They’ve always been able to sidestep whatever’s happening politically, but even Conye seems affected by the zaniness of the modern political landscape. the lived experience of frontman Wayne Conye (their 2013 album The Terror was the most brooding and contemplative they had produced, and it came in the aftermath of a separation between Conye and his longtime partner). Their experimental brand of psychedelic rock always seemed drawn from a personal space, i.e. Baring the 2014 headdress incident that cost them a drummer, it’s hard to argue that The Flaming Lips are in any way politically charged.

The flaming lips oczy mlody