Freak Out vol. 2: Here It Is

HERE IT IS (1986)

And now things really kick off with the first proper Lips album, and it’s pretty amazing. They come out strong with opener “With You”, which is just a great pop song with a nice build and one of my all time favorite Lips lyrics “All that I know is my mind is blown / when I’m with you”. Love it. They actually bring the track back as a coda to the entire album, which I really love as it gives the whole thing the sense of unity and being an actual album. It’s pretty simple, and they’re far from the first to do it, but again, it shows them thinking about things in a grander sense then just “here’s a bunch of songs”.

The other main note-worthy song here is “Jesus Shootin’ Heroin”. For quite a while they were committed to one near 10 minute spacey, screeching freak out per album, and this fills that slot here. It’s not the best example (that will come next album) but is fine.

Rest of the album is surprisingly straight forward songs with the occasional weird moment peppered in. There are very simple songs on here, but they often are tempered with some odd lyrical choices, like an homage to Godzilla (“Godzilla Flick”) or “Charlie Manson’s Blues”. What are they about? Not really sure to be honest.

Overall, much more tunefull than the EP, with actual melodies, singing (all from Wayne now that Mark is gone, though he’s using a much deeper singing voice here than he later would), song structure, and all that stuff.