After a career of over 10 years with little commercial or, indeed, critical success, The Flaming Lips from Oklahoma could well be the new Pulp. This collection of a myriad of musical ideas proves to be a great maverick album in a year when there have been quite a few great maverick albums. 'Race For The Prize' opens the performance in sparkling, heartbursting manner using one of the most underused and underrated musical instruments, the theremin. Indeed, perhaps the most famous user of the theremin, Brian Wilson would have been proud of much of the fine work on offer here as it is high on experimentation but never forgetting that all this meddling would be worthless without a decent tune. Most of the tracks here possess a psychedelic dream-like quality which has been noted at length by most of the music press and this time, the hype really can be believed.