Hit to Death in the Future Head

Hit to Death in the Future Head is The Flaming Lips' fifth album and their debut album on Warner Bros. Records. It was released on August 5, 1992.

"Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)" was released as the lead track on the EP Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin Pigs Is Still Radical to promote the album.

The title provided the inspiration for the name of the British band The Futureheads.

Recording and release
Recorded in 1991 by the same lineup that had been featured on In a Priest Driven Ambulance, the album's release was delayed for nearly a year due to the use of a sample from Michael Kamen's score for the film Brazil in the track "You Have to Be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil's Brain)", which required a lengthy clearance process. During the intervening period, both Nathan Roberts and Jonathan Donahue left the band (the latter resuming his duties in Mercury Rev). By the time of the album's release both Steven Drozd and Ronald Jones had joined, and performed on the subsequent tour.

The album is known for a particularly long hidden track at the end of the CD, consisting of a continuous burst of staccato noise, panning from channel to channel, lasting for nearly a half-hour.

Reception
Hit To Death in the Future Head was released to generally positive reviews from critics. Sputnik Music gave the album a 4.0 "Excellent" rating and praised the "great mix of sounds" and "imaginative lyrics and sound titles", but admitted that "tracks like "The Sun" are slightly hard to listen to at first". He went on to recommended the tracks "Talkin' 'Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)", "Hit Me Like You Did The First Time", and "Gingerale Afternoon (The Astrology of a Sunday)". AllMusic's Jason Ankeny gave the album a 3.5/5 star rating and stated that even though it's "not as conceptually tight as in a Priest Driven Ambulance", it's "no less cohesive or imaginative", and ultimately concluded that the album "serves as the bridge between the band's noisier, more hallucinatory indie work and the acid-bubblegum aesthetic perfected on their later Warner Bros. albums".

Personnel

 * Wayne Coyne – vocals, guitar
 * Michael Ivins – bass
 * Jonathan Donahue – guitar
 * Nathan Roberts – drums