27 October 2026 – The Flaming Lips Announce The Teardrop Throbs and Enter a New Psychedelic Era Without Steven Drozd

American psychedelic-rock veterans The Flaming Lips have announced The Teardrop Throbs, their seventeenth studio album and first collection of new material in seven years. Scheduled for January 22, 2027, through Third Man Records, the thirteen-track project represents an important transition for one of alternative music's most imaginative groups. The album is their first in approximately thirty-five years without longtime multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, whose departure marks a significant change in the band's creative history.

Frontman Wayne Coyne has introduced the record through an extensive personal statement exploring fatherhood, grief, mortality, addiction, and the peculiar circumstances that inspire songwriting. Lead single "God Will Control the Werewolves" provides a characteristically surreal introduction to the album's atmosphere. Its title originated from a conversation between Coyne and his children during an evening game of hide-and-seek.

The album also includes "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell Part Two", which revisits ideas associated with the band's celebrated Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots period. Production involved the band alongside Taylor Johnson, Dave Fridmann, and Scott Booker, with additional contributions from Jon and Mike Fridmann.

Following the release, The Flaming Lips will perform intimate concerts in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. The project promises another collision between elaborate psychedelic experimentation and unexpectedly personal songwriting. Few bands could transform parental anxiety about imaginary werewolves into a convincing album announcement. The Flaming Lips, however, have spent decades making considerably stranger ideas seem entirely reasonable. Keep up with psych-rock releases in our experimental music section.