It’s been quite the day for new album announcements. As well as Depeche Mode and Neon Neon revealing details about their new LP’s, The Flaming Lips have got in on the act, announcing their 13th studio album The Terror.
The Terror will be released on 1 April (what’s the odds on it all being an April Fools joke!?), was produced with long-time Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann and will feature the above artwork.
Front-man Wayne Coyne released a statement to announce the album, which suggests The Terror could be a bit darker than the usual melodic whimsy we’ve come to expect from The Flaming Lips. Here’s what he said:
Why would we make this music that is The Terror — this bleak, disturbing record…?? I don’t really want to know the answer that I think is coming: that WE were hopeless, WE were disturbed and, I think, accepting that some things are hopeless… or letting hope in one area die so that hope can start to live in another?? Maybe this is the beginning of the answer. We want, or wanted, to believe that without love we would disappear, that love, somehow, would save us that, yeah, if we have love, give love and know love, we are truly alive and if there is no love, there would be no life. The Terror is, we know now, that even without love, life goes on… we just go on… there is no mercy killing.
Seeing as The Terror was recorded during band member Steven Drozd’s well documented battles with drug addiction, it’s easy to see where this ‘bleak’ and ‘disturbing’ outlook stems from.
As well as announcing The Terror, The Flaming Lips also confirmed they will be playing two live dates at London’s Roundhouse on the 20 and 21 May.
