Prescription Unfulfilled: The Flaming Lips, 'The Dark Side of the Moon'

AS FAR AS iconic albums go, few can reach the lofty status of Pink Floyd‘s 1973 release “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

Not only has it inspired numerous tributes (the vocal-only “Dark Side of the Moon A Cappella,” the reggae “Dub Side of the Moon,” the bluegrass “Dark Side of the Moonshine,” the prog-rock superstar-laden “Return to the Dark Side of the Moon” and so on), but there’s also the strange synchronicity with the film “The Wizard of Oz,” which only adds to the album’s legacy. (Fans have compiled over one hundred moments where the film and album line up).

So it’s not too surprising for psychedelic weirdos The Flaming Lips to be so entranced with “Dark Side” that they recorded their own tribute to it. They didn’t do it alone, though; they teamed up with fellow Oklahomans Stardeath and White Dwarfs (featuring the nephew of Lips frontman Wayne Coyne), ex-Black Flagger Henry Rollins and Canadian singer Peaches.

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Unfortunately, the Lips found a third way to fail: they deviate just enough from the original to sound slightly dissimilar but not so much that it sounds like an innovative take on the album. In other words: everything that’s different from Floyd rankles because it hasn’t been pushed far enough, and everything that’s the same is just a reminder that Floyd did it with more intensity, more emotion and more vitality. (Speaking of similarities and differences: I didn’t actually run the test, but based on song lengths alone, the Lips’ version seems to have lost its “Wizard of Oz” compatibility.)

It seems like every detail here feels out of place: the robotic vocals on “Money” obfuscate the song’s original intensity and desperation, while Rollins’ spoken intro before “Speak to Me/Breathe” sounds like he’s reading a script where the original felt like a more spur-of-the-moment rant. We’re used to more of a climactic ending in “Eclipse,” and even “Brain Damage” never achieves the druggy haze that’s promised in its title.

Quite simply, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” makes you feel like you’re stoned even if you never touched the stuff, while the Flaming Lips’ version makes you want to get stoned, just to see if that’ll make the album more bearable.

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It’s certainly not possible to disassociate this tribute from the original source material, which has been ingrained in our subconscious for more than three decades. But therein lies the unfortunate problem: knowing the original “Dark Side” makes the Lips’ version not a particularly compelling tribute. And if we could, by some strange twist of fate, forget ever hearing the original album, what we’re left with is not a particularly compelling Flaming Lips release either.

Written by Express contributor Catherine Lewis
Photo by J. Michelle Martin-Coyne

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