CD review: “Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of the Flaming Lips”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Children
“Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of the Flaming Lips” (Baby Rock Records)
Parents desiring to introduce their babies to the masterfully eccentric music of Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers the Flaming Lips — a noble goal to be sure — should consider “Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of the Flaming Lips” to their tiny tots’ nighttime repertoire.
The popular children’s series uses vibraphones, mellotrons and bells to convert rock songs from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Coldplay, the Beatles, AC/DC, the Pixies and more into instrumental bedtime songs.
With the homegrown alt-rockers predisposition to lush melodies, unusual instrumentation and strange sound effects, it’s hard to imagine a band better suited for the “Rockabye Baby!” treatment.
Like most installments in the series, the Lips’ lullaby album doesn’t stray far from the band’s core canon, even opening with “Race for the Prize” and closing with state rock song “Do You Realize?!? Considering the Lips won best rock instrumental Grammys for the evocative epics “The Wizard Turns On …” and “Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia),” it’s a shame neither earned a “Rockabye Baby!” interpretation.
But producer/performer Steven Boone cannily adapts the band’s signature songs, letting the distinctive melodies of “Fight Test,” “The W.A.N.D.” and “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” ring clear even without the indelible lyrics.
Squeaking toys, ribbiting frogs, chirping crickets and other sleepy sound effects add appropriate, baby-friendly whimsy to “She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” and even the raucous energy of “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” is successfully transformed into a gentle but still vibrant lullaby.
— BAM
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