Flaming Lips Share Sparse 'Sound of Failure' Demo Ahead of 'Mystics' Reissue

Flip Side of the Coyne

Hear Flaming Lips Sparse ‘Sound of Failure’ Demo Ahead of ‘Mystics’ Reissue

Band will release box set of At War With the Mystics this fall

By Kory Grow

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September 30, 2026

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The Flaming Lips will commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 11th album, At War With the Mystics , this fall with an anthology box set due out this fall. The six-disc collection, which includes previously unreleased demos and studio recordings, as well as non-album tracks and concert recordings, will come out on Nov. 13. A full track list is on the band’s website .

The original album, which followed their celebrated Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots LP, contained the psychedelic singles “The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat),” “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power),” and “It Overtakes Me” — college radio hits that propelled the album to Number 11 on the Billboard 200.

The box set includes the original album, expanded to include B-sides from singles and compilation tracks released at the time, along with a 360-degree behind-the-scenes look at how the group wrote the music. One disc includes several different demos, some only a minute long, that shows the creative process. “The W.A.N.D.,” for instance, appears as two instrumental demos and an early demo, the latter of which is 89 seconds long, before the disc ends with a 3:44 instrumental. On Wednesday, they released, “The Sound of Failure (2 Demos),” a sparse rendition of the song featuring frontman Wayne Coyne singing along with acoustic guitar and keys and a more piano-driven version.

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_Originally reported by [Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/flaming-lips-at-war-with-the-mystics-box-set-reissue-1235634412/)._