In At War With the Mystics, their follow-up to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips have girded for battle. And their list of targets is long.

Target No. 1: The Bush administration.

In the album's infectious kick-off track: "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," lead singer Wayne Coyne asks questions that take on a pointed immediacy:

"If you could blow up the world with a flick of the switch / would you do it?"

"If you could make everybody poor just so you could be rich / would you do it?"

The answers to those questions come as a silly chorus: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

Other tracks on the album have a similar "fight the power" vibe, such as "Free Radicals (A Hallucination Of The Christmas Skeleton Pleading With A Suicide Bomber)"and "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)." The music matches the forward lyrics, layering thick slabs of guitar and electronic noise.

Taking on politicians can prove risky; just ask the Dixie Chicks. But the Lips cover themselves by not naming names. The songs are general enough to be directed at any government.

Target No. 2: Us.

Sure, Coyne tells us, politicians may not have our best interests at heart. But he doubts we would do better. What qualifications do we have?

Later in "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," he sings: "It's a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want / Because you cannot know yourself or what you'd really do."

Absolute power, after all, corrupts absolutely.

Target No. 3: Gwen Stefani and Britney Spears.

And you thought going against the White House was risky. In "The Sound of Failure," the song's protagonist finds that a life defined by death and sadness has no place in the slick tunes peddled by Gwen and Britney.

Coyne croons: "So go tell Britney and go tell Gwen, / she's not trying to go against all them. / 'Cause she's too scared and she can't pretend / to understand where it begins or ends." Pop culture, surprise surprise, offers her no answers.

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