Post by Tony LeCalvez
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots- The Flaming Lips
- Fight Test
- One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1.
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2
- In the Morning of the Magicians
- Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
- Are You a Hypnotist??
- It’s Summertime
- Do You Realize??
- All We Have Is Now
- Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)
“Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” is a combination of Indie Psychedelic Rock that pretends to be a concept album before dropping that precept halfway through to journey through the cosmos of sonic psychedelia. The first half of Yoshimi follows a loose story about a young woman (Yoshimi) employed by the government and the world’s last hope to defeat Giant Pink Robots bent on eating all humans. The first couple of tracks are narrated by this Big Brother-esque robot voice and a crowd that prepares the listener for the oncoming battle.
Yoshimi Pt. 1 is a cute hype song for our heroine followed by Part 2, a drum set heavy, keyboard fueled vortex of intensity and clashing sounds. This part has no lyrics as the frequencies of sound doing battle represent Yoshimi and the Robots going at it.
What I find odd is the drop of narrative content in the second half. After “In The Morning of the Magicians” all the songs are just regular Flaming Lips songs. They’re not bad by any means, it’s like taking a step into a kaleidoscope of sounds, oozing through your ears in all directions like a tie-dye slime. “Do You Realize” gets a bit back to normal structure expectations being a cute song of admiration for a girl that I like to attribute to Yoshimi. The final track “Approaching Pavonis etc.” is back on the purely instrumental rockedleich sound. All the musicians really flex they’re playing and producing abilities on this song, and even earned the band a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2002.
This album was the biggest success for The Flaming Lips, earning critical praise and even an adaptation into a musical at The La Jolla Playhouse. The plot of the play involves Yoshimi battling cancer, the robots representing hospital equipment and cancerous cells. However you choose to interpret the album, it will carry you on an eargasmic adventure of psychedelic flexibility.