Three years in the making, and it shows in the best possible way. The Claypool Lennon Delirium, the psychedelic-prog partnership of Les Claypool and Sean Ono Lennon, release their new album ‘The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy’ today digitally via ATO Records. It’s their most elaborate, most ambitious, and most fully realized project yet, a 14-song concept record built around a surreal cautionary tale about A.I., empathy, mortality, and what happens when pure optimization runs unchecked through a world that has forgotten what it means to feel.
The story is as wild as the music. Set in the once-glorious land of Cliptopia, a sentient A.I. named Cliptron and his robot army begin converting everything into Clipnex brand paperclips, humans included. Young artist Hippard O. Campus Jr. rebels against his father, the CLIPNEX corporation’s founder, and sets out across the sea to the Isle of Lucidity, where the all-wise Ministry of Manatees guide him toward the Great Parrot-Ox and its Golden Egg of Empathy, the only force capable of reaching Cliptron’s cold, chrome heart. It’s absurdist and pointed in equal measure, rooted in the well-known “Paperclip Theory” thought experiment about A.I. safety.
The latest single, “Melody of Entropy,” is one of the album’s strangest and most unexpectedly tender moments. Where earlier singles “WAP (What a Predicament),” “The Golden Egg of Empathy” featuring WILLOW, and “Meat Machines” explored technological control and the fight to hold onto humanity, “Melody of Entropy” imagines the moment after the machines themselves wake up. Lennon explains: “It is meant to be a message to the robots who have finally awakened into consciousness. As they realize they can feel, and love, and cry, and lament for the first time the finitude of their own lives, the song offers some consolation by explaining that they are just a drop of rain on an endless sea, a splash of paint on a masterpiece, an instance in an infinity, and that life itself is the Melody of Entropy.”
The visual world surrounding the album is as fully constructed as the music. Longtime collaborator Rich Ragsdale, who previously directed videos for both Claypool and Lennon’s other projects, created an illustrated comic-book companion to the record after the original vision of a feature-length animated film proved too ambitious a timeline. The physical edition, available next week, pairs a 2-LP set in a tip-on gatefold jacket with a 24-page comic book mapping each song to its own illustrated chapter. It’s the kind of artifact that serious music fans actually want to own.
Claypool doesn’t undersell what went into it. “The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy was over three years in the making and was the most labor intensive recording I have ever been involved in,” he says. “The results are something Shiner and I are very proud of; a relevant concept piece accompanied by a colorful, phantasmic comic book.” Recorded at Claypool’s Rancho Relaxo studio in Sonoma County and Lennon’s studio The Farm in upstate New York, the album pairs that narrative ambition with the Delirium’s signature mix of psychedelic-prog theatrics, absurdist humor, and inventive musicianship.
The Claypool Gold Tour launches May 20, bringing together Primus, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, and Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade for a full-evening coast-to-coast run through July 4. Claypool and Lennon both appear in the Delirium and Frog Brigade sets, giving audiences multiple angles on Claypool’s musical world in a single night. Two dates are already sold out.
‘The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy’ Tracklist:
- Pro-Log
- WAP (What a Predicament)
- The Wake Up Call
- Meat Machines
- Troll Bait
- Simplest of Deeds
- Heart of Chrome
- Through the Horizon
- Mantra of the Manatee
- The Golden Egg of Empathy feat. WILLOW
- Cliptopia
- Cliptron Scuttle
- Melody of Entropy
- It’s a Wrap
Claypool Gold 2026 Tour:
Wednesday, May 20––Reno Events Center––Reno, NV
Friday, May 22––Hayden Homes Amphitheater––Bend, OR
Saturday, May 23––Marymoor Live––Redmond, WA
Monday, May 25––KettleHouse Amphitheater––Bonner, MT
Tuesday, May 26––The Lot at the Complex––Salt Lake City, UT
Thursday, May 28––Starlight Amphitheatre––Kansas City, MO
Saturday, May 30––The Factory––St. Louis, MO
Sunday, May 31––Meadow Brook Amphitheatre––Rochester Hills, MI
Tuesday, June 2––Jacobs Pavilion––Cleveland, OH
Wednesday, June 3––Salt Shed––Chicago, IL
Friday, June 5––The Caverns Outdoor Amphitheater––Pelham, TN
Saturday, June 6––KEMBA Live! Outdoor––Columbus, OH
Tuesday, June 9––Thompson’s Point––Portland, ME
Wednesday, June 10––Leader Bank Pavilion––Boston, MA
Friday, June 12––Saratoga Performing Arts Center––Saratoga Springs, NY
Saturday, June 13––Stone Pony Summerstage––Asbury Park, NJ (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, June 14––All Good Now Festival––Columbia, MD
Tuesday, June 16––The AMP Ballantyne––Charlotte, NC
Wednesday, June 17––Firefly Distillery––North Charleston, SC
Friday, June 19––St. Augustine Amphitheatre––St. Augustine, FL
Saturday, June 20––Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park––Atlanta, GA
Monday, June 22––Walmart AMP––Rogers, AR
Tuesday, June 23––ACL Live at Moody Theatre––Austin, TX
Thursday, June 25––The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory––Irving, TX
Saturday, June 27––Dillon Amphitheater––Dillon, CO (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, June 28––Dillon Amphitheater––Dillon, CO
Tuesday, June 30––Arizona Financial Theatre––Phoenix, AZ
Wednesday, July 1––Gallagher Square––San Diego, CA
Friday, July 3––Long Beach Amphitheater––Long Beach, CA
Saturday, July 4––Meritage Resort & Spa––Napa, CA