I have a few questions for The Flaming Lips.

Chiefly: Why?

Are you really so desperate for attention that you felt the need cover an entire album by the most popular band in rock history?

Are you really so insecure that you had to throw in a bunch of younger artists selling millions more records than you?

But damn it, Beatlemaniac that I am, I couldn’t help my curiosity about With A Little Help From My Fwends. The same compulsion that led me to become a groupie of the local Beatles cover band at 12 led me here. And the Flaming Lips are betting that I, and the millions of others like me, will make it worth their while. The Lips are also evidently betting that if they or the Fab Four don’t draw you in, one of their dozens of popular fwends on this record might do the trick. I must say, they sure do have a pretty eclectic group of guests, with My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Tegan & Sara, MGMT and…wait for it…Miley Cyrus among the highlights.

What sets this effort apart from many Beatles covers is that the motley crew approaches the songs in a completely different way than the originals. They give each song a different feel than the last, all of it a far cry from either the Merseybeat or the Flaming Lips. It’s actually kind of neat to hear an updated version of “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” á la the Flaming Lips, Maynard James Keenan and Sunbears.

The results aren’t so neat in every case, but I will say that Fwends kept me on my toes. I found myself legitimately curious about how the next utterly familiar tune would be reinvented. There were also times when I was reminded of the Beatles—specifically, some recordings that recently resurfaced of John Lennon jamming with a random collection of other talented people, all coked out of their minds. If that’s what they were going for, the Lips et al have succeeded.

Ultimately, With A Little Help From My Fwends is patently mediocre. Unlike I Am Sam (the only worthy collection of Beatles covers to date), Fwends fails either to play to the strengths of its artists or to push the envelope far enough to be consequential in its own right. I’ll wager that few to zero people will ever think, “I want to listen to ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ specifically the version by The Flaming Lips, Moby and Miley Cyrus.”

Fwends was fun to listen to, once. If you’re like me—i.e., you read, watched and listened to the entire Beatles Anthology—Fwends could be fun for you, too. Just do yourself a favour and avoid marring the original “A Day in the Life” by associating it with the version included here.

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