At War with the Mystics
2006 studio album by the Flaming Lips
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At War with the Mystics is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on April 3, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The album is more guitar-driven and features more politically themed lyrics than the band's previous two albums The Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). It is the group's first album featuring contributions from drummer Kliph Scurlock despite not being credited alongside the rest of the band until the following album, Embryonic.
| At War with the Mystics | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 3, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | June 2004 – January 2006 | |||
| Studios | Tarbox Road Studios, Cassadaga, New York | |||
| Genres | ||||
| Length | 54:53 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producers |
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| The Flaming Lips chronology | ||||
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| Singles from At War with the Mystics | ||||
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| Aggregate scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 76/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B[3] |
| The Guardian | [4] |
| The Independent | [5] |
| Los Angeles Times | [6] |
| NME | 8/10[7] |
| Pitchfork | 6.7/10[8] |
| Q | [9] |
| Rolling Stone | [10] |
| Spin | B+[11] |
At War with the Mystics won a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and was also nominated for Best Alternative Album. By 2009, the album had sold over 220,000 copies in United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[12]
Track listing
All tracks are written by The Flaming Lips.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)" | 4:51 |
| 2. | "Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)" | 3:39 |
| 3. | "The Sound of Failure / It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark??" | 7:18 |
| 4. | "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action)" | 4:48 |
| 5. | "Vein of Stars" | 4:15 |
| 6. | "The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins" | 3:41 |
| 7. | "It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big... I Am So Small... Do I Stand a Chance?" | 6:50 |
| 8. | "Mr. Ambulance Driver" | 4:21 |
| 9. | "Haven't Got a Clue" | 3:23 |
| 10. | "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)" | 3:44 |
| 11. | "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" | 4:22 |
| 12. | "Goin' On" | 3:39 |
| Total length: | 54:53 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Bohemian Rhapsody" (This track originally appeared on Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen) | 6:36 |
| 14. | "The Gold in the Mountain of Our Madness" (Also appears as the final track on the Japanese import version) | 4:47 |
| 15. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" (Long version) | 5:22 |
| 16. | "Time Travel...YES!!" (Non-album track, featuring Steven Michael Burns) | 3:21 |
5.1 audio mix
Like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics was released as a special edition 5.1 CD+DVD-Audio mix on October 24, 2006, accompanied by studio outtakes, videos, and exclusive radio sessions.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)" | 5:22 |
| 2. | "Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)" | 3:40 |
| 3. | "The Sound of Failure / It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark??" | 7:18 |
| 4. | "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action)" | 5:01 |
| 5. | "Vein of Stars" | 4:15 |
| 6. | "The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight And Puts On His Werewolf Moccasins" | 3:45 |
| 7. | "It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big... I Am So Small... Do I Stand a Chance?" | 6:55 |
| 8. | "Mr. Ambulance Driver" | 4:22 |
| 9. | "Haven't Got a Clue" | 3:23 |
| 10. | "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)" | 3:43 |
| 11. | "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" | 4:22 |
| 12. | "Goin' On" | 3:37 |
Outtakes
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Why Does It End?" | 4:38 |
| 2. | "You Gotta Hold On" | 4:52 |
| 3. | "Your Face Can Tell the Future" | 5:21 |
| 4. | "The Gold in the Mountain of Our Madness" | 4:48 |
| 5. | "Time Travel?? Yes!!" | 3:23 |
| 6. | "Bohemian Rhapsody" | 6:36 |
Radio sessions
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" | 4:40 |
| 2. | "Goin' On" | 3:44 |
| 3. | "Unmade Bed / No Quarter" | 6:56 |
| 4. | "The Sound of Failure" | 4:03 |
| 5. | "Vein of Stars" | 4:50 |
| 6. | "Vein of Stars" (Operatic Spook) | 4:15 |
| 7. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" (Chicken Fried Hoedown Protest Rally) | 4:44 |
| 8. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" (In Anatropous Reflex) | 4:22 |
Videos
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mr. Ambulance Driver" | 5:00 |
| 2. | "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" | 4:06 |
| 3. | "The W.A.N.D." | 3:48 |
| 4. | "2006 OKC Classen High Commencement Speech" | 12:18 |
Personnel
The Flaming Lips
- Wayne Coyne – vocals, guitars, keyboards, mixing, production
- Steven Drozd – guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, mixing, production
- Michael Ivins – bass, keyboards, backing vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering
Additional member
- Kliph Scurlock – drums, percussion
Additional personnel
- Scott Booker – production
- Dave Fridmann – additional songwriting, production, mixing, programming, engineering, mastering
- Greg Kurstin – additional songwriting, production, backing vocals and instruments on "Haven't Got a Clue"
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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