This, compared to the Prefuse collaboration, shakes with the impact of the two bands, sounding like something beyong what either would create on their own. In short, it sounds the way an EP like this should.
It's a natural pairing, especially as the Flaming Lips have become willing to get denser and heavier and more out there and more generally like worldcurshing meteor, and Lightning Bolt have sent the occasional quizzical tentacle out of their murky underworld.
The Flaming Lipsiest track is the heavy, strangely brilliant (and brilliantly-named) I'm Working At NASA on Acid, which booms and whoops and wobbles out of space and time, one of the first truly adventurous new prog songs I've heard in ages.
The I Wanna Get High / I Wanna Get Damaged pairing splits the same too-heavy-for-Lips/too-human-for-lightning-bolt balance pretty evenly, the latter adding an extra layer of dissonant guitar noodling that somehow sounds borne of both bands, the former panning out better thanks to its singular focus on the car crash lope of a bassline.
And on the far end of the spectrum we have NASA's Final Acid Bath which really just sounds like a Lightning Bolt track shined up a touch, altogether skipping the tunefulness that the Lips attach to even their strangest tracks.
And that's about the level of success of the collaboration, in decreasing order. Lightning Bolt only really works in small doses and draws most of its strength from its unflinching brutality, but The Lips benefit from the kick in the ass they get here. The result is still mostly unlistenable, but undeniably compelling in its deep dark deep space way 3.5/5
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