Hear It Is

Hear It Is (1986) was The Flaming Lips’ first full-length album, and the first with Wayne Coyne on lead vocals, taking over from his brother Mark after leaving the band. Following in the grand tradition of other great Southwestern psych bands such 13th Floor Elevators and The Red Krayola, The Flaming Lips first act mixed punk, country and western, psychedelia, goth, and pure bar-band rock and roll into their own curious creation on classics such Jesus Shootin' Heroin, Trains, Brains, and Rain, and Charlie Manson Blues.

Sharing the weird, slanted pop sensibility of contemporaries like Meat Puppets and Butthole Surfers, this early masterpiece continues to influence bands to this day. Indeed, the punk rockers were finally taking acid.