How often do you hear “buy this record, it’s life affirming”? ‘Do You Realize??’ is more than that.

It freezes time, suddenly making you painfully aware of the futility of, well, everything. “Do you realize, that everyone you know, someday, will die?” asks The Flaming Lips' iconic leader Wayne Coyne. Stark, dark and crushing – this is a design for life and the meaning of life inside three and a half minutes. And while watershed album ‘The Soft Bulletin’ was heart stopping, this truly is life halting.

So much so that the only words which can really do justice to this single are Coyne’s fragilely eloquent intonations:

_“Do you realize, that you have the most beautiful face?”

“Do you realize, that happiness makes you cry?”

“Do you realize, that everyone you know, someday, will die? And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know you realize that life goes fast, it’s hard to make the good things last. You realize the sun doesn’t go down, it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.”_

What more could you want? The Flaming Lips are without doubt the finest band in a unique field of one. The only question left to ask is, Wayne Coyne, do you realize you're indisputably a modern day musical genius??