The title track was written for the sci-fi film Ender’s Game, while the remaining four songs were inspired by the film and the original book by Orson Scott Card. In many ways a suitable follow-up to the 2013 album The Terror, Peace Sword focuses The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne by working with another writer’s imagination. The limitations imposed by this process free Coyne to worry more about his songs' sound and emotional tenor than the overriding story. As a result, tracks like “Peace Sword (Open Your Heart)” and the grand ballad “Is the Black at the End Good?” feel complete underneath all the pretty and dazzling effects. “If They Move, Shoot ‘Em” slithers away from straightforward writing into a subliminal track that sounds like a movie’s most devastating scene. “Think Like a Machine, Not a Boy” brings out Coyne’s lifelong love of Pink Floyd by crafting the sort of plaintive, static, and beautiful melody that’s always been one of his strengths.