The Flaming Lips announced a new album today, the long-awaited follow-up to 2020's American Head. The Teardrop Throbs is out in January, and it marks two important transitions for the band. For one thing, it's coming out on Jack White's Third Man Records, making it their first album since 1990's In A Priest Driven Ambulance not to be released by Warner.
Not only is this the Lips' first indie album in 37 years, it's their first without core member Steven Drozd since 1991's Hit To Death In The Future Head. Drozd joined the Lips as a drummer in 1991, evolving into a multi-instrumentalist and a crucial architect of their music alongside founder and frontman Wayne Coyne. He left the band in 2024 under contentious circumstances, with Coyne claiming he quit and Drozd alleging he was fired.
In an interview with Stereogum this year, Drozd told his side of the story, explaining that when he left for addiction treatment, Coyne opted to continue band activities without him: "I went back to treatment. And he just stopped talking to me. That was me basically being fired from the group.
So, you know, I didn’t leave. I guess you could say I left because I’m the one that went to treatment, you know what I mean, and didn’t play the shows that were coming up." Drozd has been working on his solo debut album. The lead single from The Teardrop Throbs is out today.
It's called "God Will Control The Werewolves." Along with Coyne, band members Matthew Kirksey and Derek Brown are credited as songwriters, as is Taylor Johnson, who co-produced the new album with Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker (with additional production by Jon Fridmann and Mike Fridmann). It's a psych-pop ballad with shades of The Soft Bulletin, especially when the soaring strings intersect with fuzzed-out lead guitar. Coyne shared this statement explaining that the lyrics were inspired by an adventure with his young sons under the moonlight: "God Will Control the Werewolves" started as a little story about my 2 boys (Bloom and Rex) and me playing hide and seek at the park as it was getting dark outside.
We had all become very aware of the moon cycles when we stayed at an ocean view Airbnb about a month previous. The full moon had sucked all the water out of this ocean cove area and we walked a quarter mile out in the seabed seeing strange ocean creatures attached to the rocks.. but yes.. because of the moon we had this amazing adventure so it was fresh in our minds and on this evening of hide and seek it was luckily another full moon.. Bloom asked me if, while him and Rex were hiding, the werewolves would get them (they had also watched a few werewolf movies and knew that the full moon was the time when the werewolves were out and about) and I told him God would control the werewolves for a little bit while we played hide n seek..
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