The Flaming Lips

What began as bonus material for the Flaming Lips' album Embryonic blossomed into a reimagining of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Tapping fellow experimental Okies Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the Flaming Lips make glorious, playful hash of the revered 1973 concept album. Where byzantine synth sequences, gospel choirs and histrionic sax solos made up Pink Floyd's original prog-rock sacred text, the Lips' version lays it down simple and funky, dumping kaleidoscopic noise over each track like an upturned bucket of washers. There's a bit too much reliance on frog-fart fuzz bass ("Money" is downright flatulent), but because the Flaming Lips are masters of psychedelic inversion, there are few moments that don't live up to the promise of a blissfully whacked-out trip. Try not to knock over the bong when screams blast through the freakish climax of "Great Gig in the Sky."