It isn't that I have any strong dislike for The Flaming Lips or Air... But I'd be lying if I told you that I ever compelled to buy albums to fill that psychedelic-intellectual rock gap in my cd collection. For the record, I put Yo La Tango in the same box and I'm not a fan of theirs either. To my mind, these are bands for people with much better taste than I. They layer clever lyrics on difficult arrangements and their songs are riddled with inside jokes. These are musician's musicians who love to make the complicated look easy and the simple feel complex. But, to me, they're all boring as hell. And yes, I do know that I'm probably the only one who thinks so.

And it isn't their pretentiousness that bothers me. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Bauhaus, fer chrissake. In fact, other bands that I like very much - The Jesus and Mary Chain, Verve, Spiritualized, Spaceman 3 - are nothing if not pretentious and, more to the point, they musically share a lot with Floatation Toy Warning. And this brings us back to the album in question, "Bluffer's Guide to the Flightdeck."

Now that I've completely disqualified myself as having anything knowledgable to say on this subject, I have to come clean and admit to enjoying the album. And not for its experimentalism or DIY sound - elements that others seem to have caught on to but which, frankly, I just didn't hear.

Floatation Toy Warning is a band that comes from a world of dreamy melodies and melancholy heros who can't help but smile. They are a band backed by an orchestra of harpsichords and theramins, french horns and slide guitars. Samples blip and bloop throughout, and rhythms have the charming habit of pulling a quick change without warning.

I like "Bluffer's Guide to the Flightdeck" for its playfulness; for the fact that it has a pop-song refrain in the middle of a two part psychedelic wonderland of a song called Fire Engines on Fire; for its not caring how pretentious it is and for obviously being a whole lot of fun to make.

There's a point, however, where I get over the cuteness, the cleverness, the storytelling and, well, the wholesomeness of it all. A point at which I start looking for something more... genuine, I guess. The reason I like Spiritualized, et al is that no matter what they're singing about, it's pretty much a reflection on what's going on in their lives. For example, Jason Spaceman (singer and founder of Spritualized and Spaceman 3) opens up the album "Pure Faze" with the lyrics "everyday I wake up and I/ Take my Medication/ Spend the rest of the day trying to/ keep it all down." Did I mention that, for the purposes of the album cover, Spiritualized temporarily changed their name to Spiritualized Electric Mainline? Of course I didn't, that's the punchline.

Look, I'm a reader of nonfiction. I'm a fan of William Burroughs and Edward Bunker; I like the Rolling Stones over the Beatles and Iggy over Bowie. I like harsh realities over over fictions and I believe that if you're going to play psychedelic smacked-out songs, you should be drinking mushroom tea with needle hanging from your arm and that's what you should be singing about. And, while I know it's an indefensible position, when I don't hear it, I feel like I've been ripped off. So you hear that kids? Do more drugs.

Flotation Toy Warning's "Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck is available from Misra Records. (Some free mp3s, too!)

Russell is a scholar and a gentleman except for when he takes my money at poker.