futuristic dystopia?: i've just listened to the flaming lips' new album, yoshimi battles the pink robots, and the first thing that comes to mind is the cruise ship i was on in june, the carnival inspiration. the ship, as was to be expected, was immense and immaculately clean. in fact, on our last day on board, we learned that the organization that inspects cruise ships for cleanliness gave our ship a 99 (out of 100), an unparalleled rating. very impressive. similarly, my first impression of yoshimi was just how clean the music sounds, like between simply red's greatest hits and the corrs latest album, it'd be a perfect fit on the inspiration's playlist. the keyboards are soothing, the bass tones are very warm and full, and the drums sound muted, as if they were wrapped in gauze. the music evokes an incredibly pretty, incredibly antiseptic future where germs belong to the past. but there's something alarming about such perfection; i've never been a fan of the early lips but i couldn't help but wish for a guitar squall or two -- even kindred spirits mercury rev seem to have at least one guitar epic on their recent albums. on first listen, yoshimi is an admirable work, but i don't know if it's very lovable.