MUSIC

The Flaming Lips

"Assassination of the Sun" -- sings of millions of stars forming into a sun and machines that churn out pain, a breezy rolling drum break drives the song forward alongside floating piano chords and wiry bucolic guitar lines.

"I'm a Fly in a Sunbeam (Following the Funeral Procession of a Stranger)" and the interstellar sex romp "Sunship Balloons" equally make good on the meticulously layered, languid atmospherics and anime-inspired, metaphysical pop promise.

"A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So)"