Oczy Mlody

Oczy Mlody
Studio album by the Flaming Lips
Released January 13, 2017 (2017-01-13)
Recorded June 2012 – June 2016
Studio Pink Floor Studios in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York
Genre
Length 57:45
Label Warner Bros. (US), Bella Union (UK)
Producer The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker
the Flaming Lips chronology
With a Little Help from My Fwends
(2014)With a Little Help from My Fwends2014		 Oczy Mlody
(2017)
Singles from Oczy Mlody
  1. "The Castle"
    Released: October 21, 2016
  2. "How??"
    Released: November 11, 2016
  3. "Sunrise (Eyes of the Young)"
    Released: December 16, 2016
  4. "We a Famly"
    Released: January 5, 2017
  5. "Nigdy Nie (Never No)"
    Released: January 13, 2017

Oczy Mlody [ˈɔt͡ʂɨ ˈmwɔdɨ] (an erroneous Polish phrase, which could mean "the young eyes") is the fourteenth studio album by experimental rock band The Flaming Lips, released on January 13, 2017, on Warner Bros in the US and Bella Union in the UK.

Background

After touring for The Terror wrapped up in 2014, longtime member Kliph Scurlock was supposedly fired from the band because he called out Christina Fallin – musician, friend of Wayne Coyne, and daughter of Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma – for cultural appropriation after Christina wore a Native American headdress. Around all of this occurring, the band became affiliated with Miley Cyrus, who appeared on a track-by-track reinterpretation of the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles called With a Little Help from My Fwends. The following year, they assisted her with recording Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, and went on tour as her backing band in 2015 in support of the album. All of this helped accumulate an idea for what Oczy Mlody was going to sound like, which is generally described as a back-to-basics of the pop sensibilities touched upon with 1999's The Soft Bulletin and 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, while also building up on the ambient feel of their last album, The Terror, and topping it off with an influence of Miley Cyrus's most recent album thrown all into one sound.

Title

In two videos released in late 2016, frontman Wayne Coyne describes how he found the album title and some of the song titles and lyrics in a second-hand book, a Polish translation of Erskine Caldwell's Close to Home, titled Blisko domu.[1][2] He and the band liked the words primarily due to their sound, rather than their meaning.

In any event, the grammatical cases, genders and word order in the Polish phrase are erroneous: oczy (eyes) is plural, and młody (young) is masculine singular. The correct translation of "The Young Eyes" would be: Młode oczy. Unless, the author's intention was to say: Oczy młodych, which translates to "The Eyes of the Young [People]".

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic69/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Clash8/10[5]
The Guardian[6]
Mojo[7]
NME[8]
Pitchfork6.2/10[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Slant Magazine[11]

Oczy Mlody was released to positive to mixed reviews from critics. AllMusic's Heather Phares gave the album 3.5/5 stars and noted that "Though its title is Polish for "the eyes of the young," the Flaming Lips' state of mind on their Oczy Mlody album isn't exactly naive [sic]", ultimately concluding that "Though ["We A Family's"] happy ending feels a bit tacked-on compared to the of rest of Oczy Mlody's trippy melancholy, its meaning is clear: finding hope isn't easy, but seen the right way, it can be an adventure."[4] Clash Magazine gave the album a positive 8/10 score and noted that "Lyrically, ‘Oczy Mlody’ falls into quixotic non-sequiturs that will either have you nodding sagely or rolling your eyes, depending on your disposition (“Legalise it, every drug right now,” anyone?), but that’s par for the course. They’ve managed to meld together the grand themes of ‘The Soft Bulletin’ and ‘Yoshimi…’ with some of the experimentation of ‘Embryonic’ and ‘The Terror’, and it makes for a fascinating return."[5] In a highly positive review, Slant Magazine's Jonathan Wroble awarded the album 4.5/5 stars and praised it for being a "masterstroke of rhythm and tone that neither trips head-on into bliss nor spins into dismay".[11] A more mixed review came from Rolling Stone, who gave the album 3/5 stars and noted that it's "decidedly more stripped back and puts a fresh gleam on the Lips’ usual pucker", but that "Aside from a lousy plot, Oczy Mlody‘s only other failing is it’s a slow build" and concluded that "The album is a bitter pill at first [sic] but it pays off to tune in and turn on".[10]

On Metacritic, the album has a 69/100 score based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]

Track listing

All tracks written by the Flaming Lips.

No.TitleLength
1."Oczy Mlody"2:53
2."How??"4:24
3."There Should Be Unicorns" (featuring Reggie Watts)5:49
4."Sunrise (Eyes of the Young)"4:05
5."Nigdy Nie (Never No)"4:10
6."Galaxy I Sink"3:57
7."One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill"6:07
8."Do Glowy"4:18
9."Listening to the Frogs With Demon Eyes"7:35
10."The Castle"4:50
11."Almost Home (Blisko Domu)"4:53
12."We a Famly" (featuring Miley Cyrus)4:44
Total length:57:45
Japanese bonus track
No.TitleLength
13."Jest (There Is...)"3:58

Charts

Chart (2017) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[12] 43
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[13] 138
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] 88
New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[15] 1
Scottish Albums (OCC)[16] 34
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] 52
UK Albums (OCC)[18] 38
US Billboard 200[19] 62

References

  1. ↑ The Flaming Lips - Wayne's Explanation of Oczy Mlody. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  2. ↑ The Flaming Lips - Wayne's Explanation of Oczy Mlody Part 2. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2017-01-09.
  3. 1 2 "Reviews for Oczy Mlody by The Flaming Lips". Metacritic. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Phares, Heather (January 13, 2017). "Oczy Mlody – The Flaming Lips". AllMusic. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Rivers, Joe (January 5, 2017). "The Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody". Clash. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  6. ↑ Simpson, Dave (January 12, 2017). "The Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody review – some of their prettiest music in years". The Guardian. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Reviews for Oczy Mlody by The Flaming Lips - Metacritic". Mojo.
  8. ↑ Beaumont, Mark (January 13, 2017). "The Flaming Lips – 'Oczy Mlody' Review". NME. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  9. ↑ Berman, Stuart (January 18, 2017). "The Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody". Pitchfork. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  10. 1 2 Grow, Kory (January 12, 2017). "Review: Flaming Lips Make a Miley-Assisted Rock Opera on 'Oczy Mlody'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  11. 1 2 Wroble, Jonathan (January 3, 2017). "Oczy Mlody – The Flaming Lips". Slant. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Ultratop.be – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Ultratop.be – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  15. ↑ "NZ Heatseeker Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. January 23, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody". Hung Medien. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
  19. ↑ "The Flaming Lips Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
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