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.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."