The Claypool Lennon Delirium: The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy

Les Claypool and Sean Ono Lennon are back with their third album of original material and this time it is built around a concept. “The Paperclip Theory,� as they call it, is “the idea of an intelligence optimizing a single objective to the point where it loses sight of everything else." They “use that premise as a lens to explore AI, hyper-efficiency, and what happens when empathy gets stripped out of decision-making.�

Perhaps some readers will get what that means if they follow along with the 24-page comic book that comes with physical copies, but I will focus on the music. It is a combination of funked-out psychedelia and quirky pop reminiscent of The Beatles from Revolver through Magical Mystery Tour with early Zappa-like quirkiness sprinkled throughout. Lennon does most of the singing and, well, he sounds a lot like his Dad. So, if you’re more of a Paul or a George guy, this may not be for you.

The music is often great, with what sounds like a heaping helping of mellotron along with Claypool’s distinctive bass playing being the primary catalysts. It can almost carry the album along to the end, dragging all the (contrived) craziness with it. But with a run time of 62 minutes, that proves too tall of a task. If the duo would have trimmed the album to 40-45 minutes, they would have had a real winner, but as it is they tax the nerves of even adventurous listeners.

Track Listing
1. Pro-Log (0:37)
2. W.A.P. (5:02)
3. The Wake Up Call (2:53)
4. Meat Machines (5:32)
5. Troll Bait (4:57)
6. Simplest of Deeds (2:15)
7. Heart of Chrome (5:14)
8. Through the Horizon (4:05)
9. Mantra of the Manatee (3:34)
10. The Golden Egg of Empathy (3:50)
11. Cliptopia (3:38)
12. Cliptron Scuttle (2:14)
13. Melody of Entropy (5:41)
14. It's a Wrap (12:56)

Added: September 30th 2026
Reviewer: Aaron Steelman
Score:
Related Link: Artist's website
Hits: 13
Language: english

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