Embryonic

The Flaming Lips

Warner Bros. Records

A-

Rocks like: a hard-rocking insane… Embryonic

The Flaming Lips

Warner Bros. Records

A-

Rocks like: a hard-rocking insane asylum

Say what you want about Oklahoma psych-rock band The Flaming Lips , but give it this — it almost always takes chances.

Following up on its pop-heavy, commercially successful albums At War with the Mystics (2006) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002), The Lips has returned with its rawest, least accessible record since Zaireeka (1997). And that had to be played simultaneously on four disks.

The good news is it works — if you can handle the chaos, that is. Embryonic is a rag-tag assemblage of dissonance, ranging from the frantic (“Aquarius Sabotage”) to the uneasy (“Evil”).

The lyrics are appropriately bleak: “See the grass / It’s dying again / See the sun / It’s trying again,” frontman Coyne sings in the sinister “See the Leaves.” Its songs are populated with references to bats, worms and other unsightly creatures.

Equally grim guest stars, including MGMT, Karen O and even a German mathematician who mumbles equations over a subdued “Gemini Syringes,” add a touch of flavor and character, but ultimately, this is unmistakably a Lips album and that’s why it succeeds.

While its sounds and lyrics might be as insane and unhinged as another dimension, they’re united by the same shared topics the band has exhaustively explored since the late ’90s: mortality, science and rebirth.

Musically, this is a big departure for the Lips, a new sound for a new decade. But despite its ragged, unhinged approach, its message ­­— and its imagination — remains untarnished. Let’s hope the band keeps it that way.