Single Tracks: The W.A.N.D.

With the Flaming Lips' last album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, being quite different from the others, anticipation for their upcoming album's sound is high. At War With the Mystics is not due out until this spring, but the band just released its first single, "The W.A.N.D."

While some elements of "The W.A.N.D." resemble "Yoshimi" because of the buzzing guitar and bass lines, the effect of the vocals and the powerfully simplistic and anthem-like lyrics, the overall mix and arrangement of "The W.A.N.D." sounds more like the Lips' 1999 release, "The Soft Bulletin." In the song, the Lips truly sound like a rock band as opposed to a robotic musical entity from the future. There is no question as to how the band can perform this song live because it really does rock.