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May 29, 2020 By Christopher Roberts The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips have shared a new song, “Flowers of Neptune 6,” via a video for the track that features Kacey Musgraves on additional vocals. Frontman Wayne Coyne co-directed the video with regular collaborator George Salisbury. It features Coyne draped in an American flag and wandering a burning field in his signature clear plastic protective ball that he uses to walk over concert audiences. The standalone single is a delicate ballad, rather than one of their more experimental and noisy epics. It could almost be a B-side from The Soft Bulletin era. Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips produced the song, which is out now on Warner Records. Watch and listen below.

Coyne had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Flowers Of Neptune 6’ track started off as a very evocative series of melodies that Steven Drozd had woven together. The first time he played it for me I was stunned by its emotional flow. The three sections (well they seem like sections to me) seemed to hint at an older, mature mind reflecting back into a journey from younger innocence then starting to learn and understand and keeps going into the panic of becoming one with the world. The opening lyric ‘Yellow sun is going down so slow…Doing acid and watching the light-bugs glow like tiny spaceships in a row…’ is the coolest thing I’ll ever know…and is a combination of blissful, innocent, psychedelic experiences that Steven and Kacey Musgraves (she sings harmony with me on the track) and myself all discussed.”

In November 2019 The Flaming Lips recently released a new live album, The Soft Bulletin Recorded Live at Red Rocks with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, via Warner Records. As its title suggests, the album featured a live concert of them recording their acclaimed 1999 album in its entirety with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra (and conductor André de Ridder) at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, near Denver, Colorado.

The Flaming Lips also teamed up with Los Angeles garage rock duo Deap Vally to form the collaborative band appropriately named Deap Lips. They released their debut album together, also titled Deap Lips, in March via Cooking Vinyl.

Read our exclusive interview with Wayne Coyne on his all-time favorite album, from our My Favorite Album Issue.

The Flaming Lips released another new album, King’s Mouth: Music and Songs, back in April 2019 for Record Store Day (followed by a wider release in July 2019). King’s Mouth features spoken word vocals by Mick Jones of The Clash.

Read our interview with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on King’s Mouth.

Also read our 2017 cover story interview with The Flaming Lips on Oczy Mlody from our 15th Anniversary Issue.

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