Flaming Lips Jump to Third Man Records For First New LP in Six Years, ‘The Teardrop Throbs’

After nearly four decades on Warner Records, the Flaming Lips are going indie again. The long-running psychedelic rock warriors lead by sole remaining original member singer Wayne Coyne announced their debut album for Jack White’s Third Man Records on Monday (Oct. 26). The album, The Teardrop Throbs, is due out on Jan. 22.

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The Lips’ 17th studio album overall and first LP of new material in six years was produced by the band along with Taylor Johnson, frequent collaborator Dave Fridmann and longtime manager Scott Booker, with additional production by Jon and Mike Fridmann.

Ebullient singer Coyne, 65, elaborated on the LP’s origins in a lengthy essay in which he waxed rhapsodic about his bottomless love for his two young sons, Bloom Bobby, 7 and Rex Roses, 4, writing, “it occurred to me that there will never be anything in my life as important as my two little boys … to have arrived at the greatest of the greatest purposes in life … yes .. I am here.”

He also gave the cute backstory for the collection’s first single, the Pink Floyd-indebted saucerful of trippy secrets, “God Will Control the Werewolves.” The floaty ballad opens with Coyne singing, “Go on and play/ Go on and run/ The time for catching locusts/ Has just begun/ There are so many crying/ Up in the trees/ God will control the werewolves/ So do as you please,” over gentle piano and spacey sound effects.

In the essay, he described the song’s origin in a story about him playing hide-and-seek with the boys at a park as it was getting dark under a full moon. “Bloom asked me if, while him and Rex were hiding, the werewolves would get them ( they had also watched a few werewolf movies and knew that the full moon was the time when the werewolves were out and about),” he wrote. “And I told him God would control the werewolves for a little bit while we played hide n seek.. The way I heard the song sounding ( in my head ) was kind of Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon BUT Syd Barrett is still in the band .. ha..”

The Teardrop Throbs is the follow-up to 2020’s American Head and it will be their first without longtime member multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, who exited the group in 2024 after more than three decades. After releasing their first four albums on Restless Records, the Lips jumped to what was then called Warner Bros. Records in 1992 for their fifth album, Hit to Death in the Future Head.

The Lips will play a series of intimate shows to promote the album in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago and London next year. Each city will get a double-down, with one night focused on playing the entire new album as well as “Songs From the 20th Century,” honing in on early songs from 1986-1999, with the other presenting a “reimagining” of The Teardrop Throbs and a second set of “Songs From the 21st Century,” covering the years 2002-2020. Presales for the show will open on Wednesday (Oct. 28) and Thursday (Oct. 29) at 10 a.m. local time, followed by a general onsale on Friday (Oct. 30) at 10 a.m. local time here.

Listen to “God Will Control the Werewolves” below and see the band’s 2027 tour dates.

Flaming Lips 2027 tour dates

• Jan. 22: Nashville, Tenn. @ Brooklyn Bowl
• Jan. 23: Nashville, Tenn. @ Brooklyn Bowl
• Feb. 23: Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Bellwether
• Feb. 24: Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Bellwether
• Feb. 27: Chicago, Ill. @ The Metro
• Feb. 28: Chicago, Ill. @ The Metro
• Apr. 2: London, U.K. @ O2 Shepherds Bush
• Apr. 3: London, U.K. @ O2 Shepherds Bush