Wayne Coyne draws on fatherhood, childhood fears and the uncertainty of life for The Flaming Lips’ 17th studio album, marking the band’s debut for Third Man Records, with intimate two-night shows planned across the US and London.
The Flaming Lips will release The Teardrop Throbs on 22 January 2027, marking the Oklahoma psychedelic rock band’s first new studio album in more than six years and its debut release for Third Man Records. The 13-track album is led by the single God Will Control The Werewolves, with Wayne Coyne drawing on family life, childhood fears and the unpredictable connections between everyday experiences and songwriting.
Produced by The Flaming Lips alongside Taylor Johnson, Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker, with additional production contributions from Jon Fridmann and Mike Fridmann, The Teardrop Throbs continues the band’s association with the Fridmann production team while introducing a new label partnership with Third Man Records, founded by Jack White.
The album is the band’s 17th official studio release and follows a catalogue that has repeatedly moved between psychedelic rock, experimental production, orchestral arrangements and electronic textures.
Coyne has explained that fatherhood became a significant influence on the new material. One moment came while he was sitting in a Trader Joe’s car park watching his young son Rex sleep in the back seat. He misread a sign for a Children’s Health Foundation as a Children’s Death Foundation, a mistake that prompted thoughts about mortality, his mother’s volunteer work supporting grieving families and the importance of his two sons.
“What’s in your mind usually finds its way into your music whether you intend it to or not,” Coyne wrote in his notes about the album.
That connection between family life and the imagination is particularly evident in the title track’s companion, God Will Control The Werewolves. Coyne traced the song to a game of hide-and-seek at dusk beneath a full moon, when one of his children wondered whether werewolves might be lurking nearby.
Coyne’s response supplied the song’s title. He described the musical atmosphere he imagined as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon with Syd Barrett still in the band, suggesting a meeting of expansive psychedelic arrangements and the stranger instincts of early British psychedelia.
The album opens with Throb, a track developed from a brief passage in the soundtrack to the 1955 film The Night Of The Hunter. Coyne was particularly interested in a children’s song heard as the young characters attempt to escape danger. The Flaming Lips reworked that starting point with new lyrics about a dreary hospital, while guitarist AJ Slaughter contributed slide guitar to the arrangement.
Other tracks emerged from contributions by the band’s current members and collaborators. Bass player Tommy McKenzie brought in a home recording originally titled Matrix, which became Titan after Coyne received a short poem from Perry Farrell about frogs jumping between ideas. Vocal improvisations from Matt Kirksey helped push the melody in a direction the band had not previously explored.
Every Teardrop Cried began with a single line about seeing a lost child in every drop of rain. Coyne developed the idea into a complete song as the words and music took shape together.
You’ve Got Brain Damage, meanwhile, began with a simple drone from Slaughter’s Bandcamp recordings. Coyne has identified it as the first piece that suggested the sessions could develop into a new album. Its subject is the irreversible damage people can inflict on themselves.
The record also revisits the band’s past. Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell Part Two returns to an idea associated with the original Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell from the 2002 album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The new version considers ego, status and power before moving into A Sunset Far Away and the closing instrumental Now I Understand.
Coyne has described the final piece as an orchestral composition with the feeling of a cosmic drama reaching its resolution. Across the album, the band’s approach appears to balance detailed personal observations with the expansive arrangements and surreal imagery that have long characterised its work.
The Flaming Lips will introduce the new material through a series of intimate two-night engagements rather than a conventional arena tour. The opening shows take place at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville on 22 and 23 January, coinciding with the album’s release. The band will then play Irving Plaza in New York, The Bellwether in Los Angeles, Metro in Chicago and O2 Shepherds Bush in London.
The current lineup features Coyne on vocals, guitar and synthesiser, Derek Brown on guitar, synthesiser and vocals, Matt Kirksey on drums and vocals, McKenzie on bass and synthesiser, and Slaughter on guitar and synthesiser.
Formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, The Flaming Lips built an international following through records including The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Their work has earned three Grammy Awards, while Yoshimi track Do You Realize?? was designated Oklahoma’s official state rock song.
In 2026, the band also marked the 20th anniversary of At War With The Mystics with a deluxe six-disc reissue, revisiting another important chapter in its catalogue.
Coyne has resisted assigning definitive interpretations to the new songs, leaving listeners to establish their own connections with the material.
“I don’t really believe any song has a fixed meaning and I don’t want my songs to have a fixed meaning,” he wrote. “The song should be allowed to affect your mood and feelings regardless of how we played it and put it together.”
The Teardrop Throbs will be released on 22 January 2027 through Third Man Records. God Will Control The Werewolves is available now.
The Flaming Lips 2027 Tour Dates
22 January 2027, Nashville, TN, Brooklyn Bowl
23 January 2027, Nashville, TN, Brooklyn Bowl
26 January 2027, New York, NY, Irving Plaza
27 January 2027, New York, NY, Irving Plaza
23 February 2027, Los Angeles, CA, The Bellwether
24 February 2027, Los Angeles, CA, The Bellwether
27 February 2027, Chicago, IL, Metro
28 February 2027, Chicago, IL, Metro
2 April 2027, London, UK, O2 Shepherds Bush
3 April 2027, London, UK, O2 Shepherds Bush
The Teardrop Throbs Tracklisting
Throb
God Will Control The Werewolves
Titan
Every Teardrop Cried
Hooray
Instructions On How To Draw An Eyeball or How To Deal With A Loved One Who Is Addicted To Drugs
You See You In Me
You’ve Got Brain Damage
At The End Of The Day
The Trees Are Getting Their Leaves / Ceasefire In The City Of Singing Flame
Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell Part Two
A Sunset Far Away
Now I Understand
Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here
Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YouTube. See things first—Subscribe to Noise11 on YouTube
Follow Noise11.com on social media:
Bluesky
Facebook – Comment on the news of the day
