Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Download The Flaming Lip’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”.
Song: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Artist: The Flaming Lips
Album: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Why This Song? Because sometimes a silly, catchy little number is all you need to put you in a good mood. More times than not, I find that to be the case with this song.
Many of you will recall The Flaming Lips as that quirky mid-90’s band that came out with that song about the girl who would make you toast with vasoline, in “She Don’t Use Jelly.” Well, for all those who thought the Flaming Lips would grow up after being around for decades, you will be disappointed. On “Yoshimi”, there are serious moments, but there is always something a little eccentric with their music.
This song has a very cool sound to it, from the guitar, to the bass and down to the robot noises. It is amazingly busy; while this can detract when used improperly by lesser bands, this song in particular, pulls it off well.
Wayne Coyne’s crazy voice lends well to this track and almost everything he does. If this were any other band, you may not be able to appreciate his unique vocals, but it fits in well with what the Flaming Lips do. This song, along with the rest of the album, have an other-worldly feel to them, and his voice does well navigating you through the Lip’s unique musical journey.
At face value, this song is about a girl who trains very hard to battle evil robots that are in the mood for some good-ol’ fashioned human eating. However, I think hidden deep down - you can’t get this from this song by itself, but the entire beginning portion of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” - is an abstract view on society and human nature, with these attacks acting as a catalyst to show our true colors, the good as well as the bad.
Just the first four songs of this exceptional album manage to wrestle the nature of “love” and the complexity of defining it, individuality, and the human thought process. The refreshing part about it is that they do this without spelling anything out for you and in very abstract ways. Think of it as a musical “War of the Worlds”. A person - in this case, a woman - has to use everything that makes them human to defeat these cold and perhaps soulless machines. While they are at it, they’ll realize their failures make them stronger, learn what is really important in life, overcome super-human obstacles, and whatever other coming of age clichés you care to add.
You may be saying, “Wow, it’s just a song dude. Not everything has to have a meaning,” and you may be 100% correct. However, this is just my personal - albeit overly-analytical - view, and The Flaming Lips may really have no other agenda than to bring some silliness to the dullness of some people’s lives.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter as long as it makes us forget that we live in a time where we are surrounded by things that are entirely ugly, cold and/or depressing. Sometimes, a silly song about a vitamin-enhanced girl fighting evil robots that are trying to eat us is just the ticket to lighten up the day.
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