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Flaming Lips Discards Annoying Pop Tunes

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By CURTIS ROSS

cross@tampatrib.com

Published: December 18, 2008

Updated:

Wayne Coyne talked about "Christmas on Mars" for so long that some fans wondered whether it would ever exist anywhere besides in his head. But here it is, on DVD with 5.1 surround sound no less, handily packaged with a CD of the score. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he's from Oklahoma City.

The movie - imagine Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" on a "Plan 9 From Outer Space" budget - brings together Coyne's obsessions from the Lips' late (life's almost unbearable beauty and sadness) and early (disturbing strangeness) periods.

For all the potential campiness - non-actors, cheap sets, twisted plot - the film conveys a real sense of isolation that lingers after the credits roll. The imagery is stark and sometimes gruesome, but it's the score that's most effective in creating the film's sense of gloom and foreboding.

Fans hoping for a proper new Lips album may be disappointed. There are no songs, per se, and no vocals. There are bleak synthesizer soundscapes, sweeping orchestra passages as grand and heroic as any classic film score, even a marching band from hell.

A colleague called it a "great Flaming Lips album without the annoying pop tunes," and although that's pretty much on the money, it's more than that. What Coyne and his band mates lack in filmmaking technique, they more than make up for in their ability to create powerful, emotionally resonant music.

Without the score, "Christmas on Mars" would be a visually quirky amateur film project. With it, it becomes something that is far more affecting than its limitations might suggest.

Download: Just buy the discs.

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