Flaming Lips Mark 20 Years of At War With the Mystics

The Flaming Lips will release a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of At War With the Mystics on November 13. The reissue, available as a 6xLP or 6xCD set, appends the 2006 album with two live albums and dozens of rarities — more than 30 of them previously unreleased.

The band has assembled demos, B-sides, shelved songs, alternate versions and soundtrack contributions from the album's period. The set also includes a demo of "The Sound of Failure," released as an advance listen, alongside a preview track titled "The Sound of Failure [2 Demos]."

At War With the Mystics arrived four years after the Lips' commercial breakthrough, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. At the time, rumors suggested the record would mark a return to the guitar-led sound of the band's psych-pop origins.

Two 2006 live albums complete the package: U.F.O.s at the Zoo, recorded at what the set bills as "The Legendary Concert In Oklahoma City," and Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The Oklahoma City performance spans 16 tracks, including "Race for the Prize," "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" and "She Don't Use Jelly." The Hollywood Bowl set runs 13 tracks and closes with a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs."

The tracklist shows the depth of the archival digging. The rarities disc includes a Simlish version of "Free Radicals," a Goldfrapp remix of "The W.A.N.D." titled "The W.A.N.D. Supernaturalistic," a version of "Time Travel… Yes!!" with Steven Michael Burns, and soundtrack work such as "The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love" and "Spider-Man Theme." A further disc gathers iTunes Originals sessions, radio sessions and covers including "Bohemian Rhapsody," "(Just Like) Starting Over," "Gates of Steel" and "Silent Night/Lord Can You Hear Me." Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" and Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" also appear in session versions.

The reissue arrives during a year of change for the band. Multi-instrumentalist and co-songwriter Steve Drozd, a core member since 1991, exited the group. Drozd has attributed what he called a somewhat messy departure to a decision to stop touring. The band has remained active since.

The full album sequence appears with its original track titles intact, from "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)" through "Time Travel… Yes!!" — a catalogue that testifies to the Lips' maximalist bent even by their own standards. For a band that has spent three decades packaging albums as gum packets, USB drives and candy skulls, a six-disc tombstone for At War With the Mystics fits the house style — and reframes a record once cast as a sidestep as a period worth documenting in full.