Flaming Lips: Great song, bad movie
The Oscar predicting/campaigning/guessing has been underway for weeks, and it's easy to get jaded, especially when it comes to the race for Best Original Song.
The award goes to ... can we please just pick a song from "Once" and be done with it?
Never mind the movie, the soundtrack is one of the stronger albums of the year and yet talk persists -- perhaps something from "Into the Wild," or a tune from "Enchanted," and don't forget "Hairspray" or "Walk Hard."
Each of them has tunes of varying quality, and some I've already expressed an appreciation for. Yet I can't help but find it all tiring, as the Flaming Lips recorded a song better than anything in the aforementioned films -- excluding "Once," of course -- but it won't be nominated.
Unfortunately, "I Was Zapped By the Super Lucky Rainbow" is featured in the critical punching bag that is "Good Luck Chuck," a film that fell sub-"August Rush" on the Metacritic scorecard.
But listen, and tell me this song isn't pure joy. Guitars shoot across the melody and keyboards fire off cartoon-like laser sounds, all while Wayne Coyne sings some hokey, brilliant nonsense about falling in love and rainbows.
It's unabashedly upbeat -- the Flamings Lips' take on something like the Herman's Hermits "I'm Into Something Good," complete with storm noises, hand-claps and a squeaky, Muppet-like background singer shouting expletives.
It's almost enough to make one ready to dive back into Oscar season talk -- almost.
Photo courtesy Associated Press
