On “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” by The Flaming Lips from the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

In two haunting, ethereal verses, Wayne Coyne mourns the passing of his life at the brink of the hereafter with a regretful retrospective. The first deals with his fixation on a single, infinite moment that would validate his life, but never happens, all the while the rest of his life passes before his eyes. The second details his forever unrequited love that results in him shunning all other human love around him. His excuse, both in the song and in its title, was that he was “ego tripping.” The song warns that impossible expectations, egoism, and fixation can leave a life devoid of value, and teaches that life is not validated by atomized instances of euphoria and infinitesimal, infinite felicities, but by a continuum of all of one's experiences (not just the best) and all forms of love (not just the romantic kind).

--Bjorn Carlsson