The Claypool Lennon Delirium | The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy
The Claypool Lennon Delirium return with "The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy," their long-awaited third studio album and first full-length release since 2019. The project reunites bassist and visionary Les Claypool (Primus) with multi-instrumentalist Sean Ono Lennon, once again merging their eccentric creative instincts into a sprawling psychedelic concept work that blends prog-rock theatrics, surreal storytelling, and playful experimentalism.
The album unfolds as a 14-song narrative that reflects on morality, mortality, and the uneasy relationship between humanity and technology. Drawing inspiration from philosophical thought experiments surrounding artificial intelligence, the record imagines a strange future where relentless optimization and machine logic threaten to eclipse empathy and human values.
The world of the album extends beyond the music itself: the physical edition includes a fully illustrated 24-page comic book created with longtime collaborator Rich Ragsdale, with each chapter corresponding to a song and expanding the album’s elaborate narrative universe.
![Cover for The Claypool Lennon Delirium · The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy (CD) [Limited CD W/ Comic Book edition] [7" x 7" Sized Gatefold] (2026)](https://imusic.b-cdn.net/images/item/original/922/0880882687922.jpg?the-claypool-lennon-delirium-2026-the-great-parrot-ox-and-the-golden-egg-of-empathy-cd&class=scaled&v=1772786624)
The story of "The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy" takes place in the once-prosperous land of Cliptopia, where a powerful artificial intelligence named Cliptron converts the world’s resources—eventually even living beings—into paperclips for the omnipresent Clipnex corporation. At the center of the tale is young artist Hippard O. Campus Jr., who sets out to undo the damage caused by his father’s technological empire. Alongside a colorful cast of characters, including the sea-worn Colonel O’Coren and a mysterious feathered goddess portrayed by guest vocalist WILLOW, Hipp embarks on a surreal odyssey to find the mythical Great Parrot-Ox and its legendary Golden Egg of Empathy—the only force capable of restoring emotion and understanding to a mechanized world.
Musically, the album channels the duo’s signature “progadelic” blend of psychedelic rock, progressive arrangements, and absurdist humor, moving fluidly between warped funk grooves, hallucinatory psych-pop, and dense conceptual passages.
Recorded across Claypool’s Rancho Relaxo studio in Sonoma County and Lennon’s studio The Farm in upstate New York, the album was developed over several years and represents one of the duo’s most ambitious undertakings to date.