| Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Site developed by Love Has No Logic Design Group CHIRP, CHIRP Radio and Chicago Independent Radio Project are registered trademarks. ©2008–2022 Chicago Independent Radio Project. CHIRP Radio Blog (Radio Road Trips) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (CHIRP Battle of the Bands 2015) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (CHIRP Battle of the Bands 2016) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (Off-The-Wall Holiday Tunes) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (Midwestern Housewife) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (CHIRP Factory Sessions) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (The Fourth Wall) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (Christmas Top 25) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (Rediscovering Our Record Collections) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (Best Albums of the Year) Feed.CHIRP Radio Blog (CHIRP Radio News and Info.) Feed. CHIRP Radio Blog (Friday MP3 Shuffle) Feed.Previous entry: CHIRP Radio Best of 2014: JimK The Lips have gone on to do weirder holiday projects (the Bradbury-flavored b-movie Christmas on Mars) and safer holiday projects (the limp "A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So)"), but they've never hit the sweet spot in the center better than they did with "Christmas at the Zoo." Who would've expected such world-weary philosophizing at the center of a 3-minute Christmas song? In fact, you get the sense that both sides come away feeling a little better, even though nothing actually changes. The song's narrator attempts a daring midnight rescue of the zoo's animals, only to find that "All of the animals agreed they're not/ Happy at the zoos/ But they preferred to save themselves/ They seemed to think they could." It's a rejection of the usual weaponized charity agenda that creeps into a lot of holiday media, but it's not a strident one. Part of that bittersweetness rests in "Christmas at the Zoo," a sentimental holiday tune about the limits of good intention. Their album from that year, Clouds Taste Metallic, now comes off like a transitional record, a bittersweet document of the band's last days as their old selves. They were two years removed from the unlikely chart success (and 90210 shout-out) of "She Don't Use Jelly," but still two years from Zaireeka and their metamorphosis into a full-on psych-pop act. Looking back, 1995 was a weird time for the Flaming Lips. #18: The Flaming Lips, "Christmas at the Zoo" (1995)
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