Flaming Lips, The - American Head

Thirteen new tracks from the Oklahoma-born band

Guest appearance from country star Kasey Musgraves

The Flaming Lips are returning with a 2020 album titled American Head.

It's the follow-up to 2019's King's Mouth. The album will include the previously released single "Flowers Of Neptune 6" as well as another new track titled "My Religion Is You."

The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has published a long form story about the album and the inspirations behind it.

He says: “Even though The Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma we never thought of ourselves as an American band. I know growing up in Oklahoma I was never influenced by, or was very aware of any musicians from Oklahoma. We mostly listened to the Beatles and my mother loved Tom Jones. It wasn’t until I was about 10 or 11 that my older brothers would know a few of the local musician dudes.

“So for most of our musical life we’ve thought of ourselves as coming from Earth — not really caring where we were actually from. So for the first time in our musical life we began to think of ourselves as an American band, telling ourselves it would be our identity for our next creative adventure.

“We had become a seven-piece ensemble and were beginning to feel more and more of a kinship with groups that have a lot of members in them. We started to think of classic American bands like The Grateful Dead and Parliament-Funkadelic and how maybe we could embrace this new vibe.

“The music and songs that make up American Head are based in a feeling — A feeling that, I think, can only be expressed through music and songs. We were, while creating it, trying to not hear it as sounds, but to feel it. Mother’s sacrifice, Father’s intensity, Brother’s insanity, Sister’s rebellion… I can’t quite put it into words.”

Coyne concludes: “Something switches and others — your brothers and sisters and mother and father… your pets — start to become more important to you. In the beginning there is only you and your desires are all that you can care about, but something switches. I think all of these songs are about this little switch.”

American Head will include a total of 13 tracks, with God And The Policeman featuring a guest appearance from country star Kasey Musgraves.

Side A

1. Will You Return / When You Come Down (featuring Micah Nelson)

2. Watching the Lightbugs Glow

3. Flowers of Neptune 6

Side B

1. Dinosaurs on the Mountain

2. At the Movies on Quaaludes

3. Mother I've Taken LSD

Side C

1. Brother Eye

2. You n Me Sellin' Weed

3. Mother Please Don't Be Sad

4. When We Die When We're High

Side D

1. Assassins of Youth

2. God and the Policeman (featuring Kacey Musgraves)

3. My Religion Is You