The Flaming Lips – One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21

Only a few years after the Flaming Lips had presented The Soft Bulletin came an album about a female protagonist destined to survive amongst and against the robots: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. While each album encompasses a side of the Lips many have garnered to love – concept albums filled with emotionally-enriched, soulful songwriting about innovative worlds and stories – there’s a heavy debate amongst the music-fanatic-brethren about which of the two is superior. And so instead of dwelling on that, because much could be said in a separate post – but then who wants to read pretentious dribble as to why The Soft Bulletin is better, no. Instead, there’s beauty on this album that I was recently rediscovered with.

After the reflective entrance of “Fight Test,” where production values maintained from the previous album with sparkling, booming drums and a wide open canvas of vastness, is the tremendous pull of “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21.” The obvious facets first: its dreamy bass line throughout the entire song is amazing. The way it blends into the drums and the way each pounds against each other. There’s the story about a robot designed to work as a machine that slowly realizes perhaps, there is more to life than just monotonous work. He/she begins to feel the initial draw of love and its tumultuous breakthrough, he questions it: “Cause it's hard to say what’s real, when you know the way you feel. Is it wrong to think it’s love, when it tries the way it does...” During this time there’s an argument to be made about how Wayne Coyne’s voice had also improved and sincerely, his vocals shine like a fantastic luster on the song. Through the bumping ride of blissful bass are atmospheric glitches in the production wall, an ascending keyboard line as support and growing, growing, growing flow.

The ebb of the song is seamless: like a perfectly conscious stream of circuits. So really, you could measure it as one of the finest compositions they did on the album, without a doubt. I can’t help but feel like the song has to be a metaphor to someone first learning how emotions and love are connected and how one comes out of their shell in order to reach and attain love. Like all of us, whether it’s the very first time, or even after coming back to it all after a long break, feeling emotions and sentiments is a delicate manner. So this robot is a bit awkward and pondering it all still.

Then everything sort of transcends, almost motionless, into an abyss of metallic feedback and reverb on the “Sympathy 3000-21” part. Borrowed from the beginning of the song, it’s unsettled but not chaotic. Only instead of creeping into the beats there’s a soft guitar intro before the synthesizer in the background - well the melody at the foreground - like a lonely lullaby is paired with lush, orchestral swells. Sweeping and majestic, they’re heavenly flourishing strings that uncover a stellar symphony. It’s a brief segment of music that acts more as resolution to the massively gorgeous endearment before it; but before, during and as it reaches and exhales, it’s gorgeous in and of itself. – Bryan

(P.S. Wall-E has/had nothing to do with “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21,” as through no official meaning by the Lips. Love the movie though, unabashed. If I could write about movies, I’d write a story about it.)