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 Christmas On Mars (CD/DVD)Sales Rank:1349List Price: $24.98 Lowest New Price: $17.29 Lowest Used Price: $12.98 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 Total Reviews: 7 Customer Reviews:Rating: 1 They could have said it was an instrumental on the CD I know a lot of people think this album is great because of the musical experimentation and the concept of the whole thing. I like instrumental music, I have just about every ambient album produced by Brian Eno and his cohorts. I bought this not knowing much about it, I assumed it would be another great album from the Lips featuring their unique sound and thought-provoking lyrics. What I got was a disjointed and thoroughly pretentious hour of humming and buzzing with nary a lyric to be found. This may be a delight for many of their fans, but it isn't for me at all. Save yourself the trouble and don't bother wasting your time with this album. Rating: 4 A Vaginalistic Voyage Christmas On Mars is finally here. Seven years in the making, Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips have released their freaky no budget film about the first Christmas on the red planet. Filmed mostly in Wayne's backyard and with the band and their friends and family as the actors, they've created a great flick. The sets are spectacular, especially considering they built them using stuff they bought from Home Depot. The acting is really bad (and sometimes really good), and the visuals and special effects are out of this world. Wayne cites 2001: A Space Oddesey, Eraserhead and The Wizard Of Oz as influences. I also see a 50's sci-fi influence throughout (especially the over the top acting and low budget production). The story moves kind of slow, but it doesn't matter, the trippy visuals and epic soundtrack move it along. Basically a group of people have been living in a space station on Mars for a year, it's Christmas Eve and something's wrong with the oxygen machine. The crew are slowly going insane and there's a sort of test tube baby that's about to be born. Everybody is on edge and having very weird hallucinations (that are visually awesome and quite disturbing). An alien (played by Wayne) shows up and, well I don't want to ruin the ending so I'll stop there. The CD of the score that accompanies the film is quite good as well. You won't find the "Yeah Yeah Song" or any of their more "conventional" music here, but some very epic, ambient instrumental textures. I believe it was mostly recorded at the same time as "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots". After the disappointing "At War With The Mystics" this a great return to form for The Lips. They've always had the ability to completely surprise and overwhelm your senses with their brand of freaky psychedelic weirdness, but it seems lately they've been sadly inching toward mediocrity. My faith in them is fully restored, and I hope this is just the beginning of what could be a wonderful career in film for Wayne. AOh, and check out the interview segments. They're hilarious and very insightful. Rating: 5 Review of the music: reinventing themselves... again The "Christmas On Mars" score The Flaming Lips have come up with is simply genius! This is not your typical Lips sound, clearly. Yet they deserve credit for having reinvented themselves again, not unlike Radiohead, coming up with an album that resembles more a surreal, dreamy ambient piece than their alternative rock sound that has made them legendary. Note: I have not had the opportunity to watch the DVD accompanying the music CD. Rating: 2 nope Love the Lips. Got everything. The soundtrack is interesting, but not listenable. Do not buy it without checking it out first. I was very disappointed with how lame the music was, compared to what they could have created. I expect the DVD to be as silly as it's been made out to be, so no review needed there. Of course I pre-ordered this, but I think reading a review like this one would have saved me 20 bucks. It'll be budget bin in a year. Too bad - I always look forward to the latest Lips to hear what melodies they've stolen this time (insert smiley face HERE) - but no melodies on THIS puppy. (P.S. - Soft Bulletin is one of the finest albums ever made). Rating: 5 VERY much worth the 7-year-wait... This 2-disc CD/DVD of their bigger-budget "home movie" and accompanying score is finally out and, if you know the Flaming Lips music and creators, "Christmas On Mars" makes perfect sense. First, the score CD: the Flaming Lips have done instrumental music before...the occasional track or song-excursion, like that "Balloon" song on "Yoshimi", which was actually written for "Christmas On Mars", but was deemed too poppy for it but perfect for "Yoshimi". If you like these types of tracks that Wayne & co do, you will dig the score...however if you are a Lips fan strictly for Wayne's SINGING, you probably won't. Me, I dig the crazy creative minds of Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins, so I dig the score (it IS on the short side, 32 minutes and change). As for the movie itself...it's black & white (with flashes of colour), 86 minutes long (not TOO long), flat-out WEIRD and fun and trippy and you see not only all 4 Lips (yes Klyph Scurlock too), but their family (Wayne's wife Michelle is VERY prominent in it, as are a Coyne brother and nephews and baby niece) and friends...the 7-years-in-the-making "Christmas On Mars" is a film extension of their unique psychedelic freakout/childrens birthday party on acid/warped pop music. How it came into being in the first place was courtesy of Wayne's mom Dolly...Wayne & his bros came home late one night, 2AM, saw their mom crying, as she saw some sad old movie and described it as people in space dying and as they coped with the idea of death, a strange being came down (an alien, God, etc) and comforted them...turns out this movie never existed in the first place...Mrs Coyne saw a combo of bits of old flicks, fell asleep inbetween and dreamt the rest. Well, Wayne was so taken by this "movie" that once he found out it never existed, he took it upon himself to actually make this movie...and actually did it!!! Using family and friends, a handful of them REAL actors, along with locations around OKC, including abandoned warehouses and Wayne's & Michelle's own backyard, scraps of found parts and metal, and sets Wayne built himself, and done in fits & starts, over the course of 7 years, inbetween albums and tours, "Christmas On Mars" is finally complete. It's worth it...an INSTANT, weird, compelling cult classic...show it to your friends and family, buy multiple copies and give them as gifts for the holiday season!!! Spread the Lips luv!!! Perfect for anyone's warped mind and inner child!!! Equal parts "Wizard Of Oz" and "Eraserhead" and "2001: A Space Odyssey", with a nice dose of Lips warped uniqueness. Perfect!!! I am looking forward to their next project, now that Wayne & co got this movie out of their system...an instant cult classic you have to experience for yourselves...it was very much worth the wait, oh yes. Even further, buy the GREEN VINYL version, how cool is that??!!??!! |