Economics teaches us that the more abundant something is, the less appealing we will find it. For example, if you eat one cookie, it will be delicious, but if you eat 30 cookies, you will soon be sick of cookies. For another example, the Flaming Lips released their last record in 2009. Since then, they have released a song-for-song remake of The Dark Side of the Moon, a split with Neon Indian, a USB exclusive track available only inside of a marijuana flavored gummy skull, a 70 minute, 13 track collection of collaborations with everyone imaginable, covers of songs by Madonna, The Beatles, and more, a compilation of their first several records (along with those same vinyl reissues), a URL-exclusive twenty-four hour long psych-freakout track, twelve YouTube videos meant to be played simultaneously, live performances of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi in full, assorted car commercial singles, Wayne Coyne’s constant twitter feed, and on and on and on and on and on…

So, economically speaking, The Terror should simply fade in to the constant barrage of nonsense that Wayne Coyne & Co. is constantly spouting out.

But I guess The Flaming Lips don’t understand economics very well.

That, or like the brilliant kid who chooses to be the class clown, they know when it’s time to shut up and get serious, because this album is a masterpiece. Bleak and menacing, The Terror is the follow up everyone who loved Embryonic (ahem) was hoping for. As Pitchfork predicted, Embryonic was indeed the introduction to the next phase of the Flaming Lips’ creative arc. The apocalyptic imagery, the sci-fi synths, the noise bursts are all still here, but they’re played calmer. Where Embryonic spent so much of its time running from the approaching nuclear clouds, The Terror sees the whole world decaying little by little and accepts that there’s no escape. And it accepts it with grooving ambient beats, Wayne Coyne’s lilting voice (as fragile as it’s ever sounded), and the occasional fit of rage. The Flaming Lips have quit messing around on this one–so you’d better listen to what they have to say.

Edit: the bonus side, a fifteen minute remix of the entire album entitled We Don’t Control the Controls, is absolutely beautiful.