The Flaming Lips release cover of legendary Beatles album

Covering any work of rock genius is a pretty huge feat to take on, especially when that work is the Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) -- an album hailed for its influence in the music industry and the psychedelic era, the soundtrack to the "summer of love." You know it, you’ve heard it and surely, you know it’s a big deal. Or at least you've ordered a “Lucy in the Chai” at the Rez and (let's hope) got the reference.

So with any great cover comes great responsibility, right? "Sgt. Pepper's" has been covered once before with the multi-artist compilation of “Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father” (1988), featuring artists like Sonic Youth and The Fall.And on Oct. 27, The Flaming Lips released their rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's," entitled “With a Little Help from My Fwends.” The album certainly seems to have a lot of these so-called “fwends” too, bringing in artists like Dr. Dog, Phantogram, My Morning Jacket and even Miley Cyrus. She is featured on not just one, but two tracks.

Interestingly enough, the proceeds from the album will be aiding the Bella Foundation, an organization located in Oklahoma City that aids low-income pet owners with the cost of veterinary care. As to why the Lips chose this charity -- well, it seems like no one’s quite sure.

It's worth noting, too, that "Fwends" isn't the Lips' first ambitious cover. In 2011, the group released “The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon” (yes, that is the full title), their re-imagination of Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic.

And while “Fwends” hasn’t exactly been well-received by critics -- it received a 5.5 out of 10 on Pitchfork and just two stars from The Guardian, which deemed the album “unoriginal”-- it’s worth a listen, even just to hear the Flaming Lips attempt to go the extra mile and make “Sgt. Pepper's” even more trippy than the Beatles’ original creation. While the auto-tuned opening of “With a Little Help from My Fwends” might be a little unsettling to any die-hard Beatles fan, who wouldn't be at least a bit excited by the list of seemingly unlimited guest appearances on each of the album’s 13 tracks?

Surprisingly, the consensus seems to be that Cyrus' contribution is the album's standout guest performance. She appears first in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and later in a sorrowful “A Day in the Life.” On “Lucy,” Cyrus performs a striking duet with Lips front man Wayne Coyne and can be heard chuckling in the background at the track’s close, asking “didn’t that make you nervous?” Yet she doesn’t seem nervous; her raspy, subdued voice on this track takes on a new identity from her usual “Bangerz” (2013) persona.

"Fwends" also gives tracks like “Lovely Rita” a new electric feel in deviation from the group's usual acoustic versions, featuring guests like Teagan and Sara and Stardeath and White Dwarfs. And just like The Beatles, the Lips go out with a largely identical bang with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise),” reminding us that both bands are certainly performing in good fun, whether it’s the Beatles performing as Sgt. Pepper, or the Flaming Lips performing as the Beatles.

When asked in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about the experience of treading on “sacred ground” to recreate one of The Beatles’ many masterpieces, Coyne responded that he divides the world into three categories when thinking of these types of issues.One third of the people who listen to this album, he said, will enjoy hearing a new rendition of something they know and love. Another third will probably only know who Miley Cyrus is and have no clue about the Beatles. And the final group will be entirely too defensive of them traipsing on the Beatles’ holy ground, and may threaten to kill the Lips in their sleep if they make the same mistake again. Yet, Coyne said, “I don’t understand that thinking at all. I try to remember that even though we did a Beatles song, the other Beatles songs still exist.”

Here Coyne gets it right. The critics of Pitchfork may not be abundant with praise for “With a Little Help from My Fwends,” but the Flaming Lips have never been a group to take themselves too seriously. They’re performing to pay tribute to a band that we all know and love, to give them respect and maybe a bit of new energy. Perhaps some listeners' only real reaction to this cover album may be to return to the original “Sgt. Pepper's,” and reminisce on the first time they heard “Lucy in the Sky,” or “When I’m Sixty-Four.” And you know what? If "Fwends" inspires one to revisit a great album, the Flaming Lips would probably be just fine with that.