The long-reigning kings of big-sky psychedelia emerge from their Oklahoma City bunker to ask this musical question: If the Powerpuff Girls took on Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," who would win? The answer, in this case, is the listener. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots isn't the end-to-end triumph that was 1999's The Soft Bulletin, still the most beauteous of Lips albums. But the production is equally ambitious, with burbling electrobeats underpinning sci-fi orchestrations that sound like the brainchild of Esquivel and the Orb. Techno isn't the band's forte, as "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2" demonstrates. But elsewhere the trio's love of sound sorcery is gently folded into gorgeous melodies such as "In the Morning of the Magicians," "Are You a Hypnotist??" and "Do You Realize?" "All we have is now," Wayne Coyne sings, and the Lips sound absolutely ecstatic to be living in the moment.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."