Flaming Lips' Double Album "Embryonic" Due in the Fall

Contrary to popular belief, churning out a double album isn't easy, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne tells the BBC's 6 Music blog. Nailing down a track list has been hard, he says, "Because we want to go in so many strange directions and sometimes we're unfocused and sometimes we're just so wishy-washy." The two-disc set is due in September, and though song names and a track order have yet to be determined, Coyne is ready to wrap up the follow-up to 2006's At War With The Mystics: "I think it must be like being a cook in the kitchen you're preparing this great thing but by the time it's ready you're sick of it because you've been smelling it, you've got it in your hair and in your fingers and all that." Of course, a two-disc set isn't the most ambitious project the Lips have tackled: in 1997 they released Zaireeka, four albums meant to be played simultaneously. The Lips most recently recorded a cover of Madonna's "Borderline" and had "Do You Realize???" named Oklahoma's official rock song.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

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