Kacey Musgraves Lends Her Voice to Flaming Lips’ Spacey New Song [Listen]
Kacey Musgraves suffuses the Flaming Lips' new song "Flowers of Neptune 6" with her unmistakable presence. Taking a harmony vocal alongside the psychedelic rock act's lead singer Wayne Coyne, Musgraves and the group drive the dreamy groove of a laid-back number first released last week (May 28).
It's closer to something from the Lips' vast catalog than that of Musgraves' albums. (Think more The Soft Bulletin and less Golden Hour.) Still, the country star drapes the tune in her unique timbre, Musgraves' measured cadence making the perfect complement for Coyne's often lachrymose delivery.
Not that the veteran rockers are shy to collaborate with high-profile performers — the Flaming Lips did back Miley Cyrus, after all. This time around, though, the band harnesses Musgraves' "Rainbow" power for the track spearheaded by Coyne and his longtime creative foil, instrumentalist Steven Drozd.
The Flaming Lips frontman calls the song a combination of "blissful, innocent, psychedelic experiences that Steven and Kacey Musgraves (she sings harmony with me on the track) and myself all discussed."
Coyne continues, "[The] 'Flowers of Neptune 6' track started off as a very evocative series of melodies that [Drozd] had woven together. The first time he played it for me I was stunned by its emotional flow. The three sections (well they seem like sections to me) seemed to hint at an older, mature mind reflecting back into a journey from younger innocence then starting to learn and understand and keeps going into the panic of becoming one with the world."
Talk about a trip. Perhaps the Flaming Lips were just returning the favor. In 2019, Musgraves covered the band's 2002 song "Do You Realize??" during tour stops and at that year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
She doesn't call herself "Spacey Kacey" for nothing.
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