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by: The Flaming Lips

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - A Modern Art-Rock Masterpiece The Flaming Lips built their reputation on eclectic punk-rock and surrealistic lyrics. However, over the past few years, their music has continued to evolve and improve, both sonically and lyrically, resulting in two of the best albums of the past 10 years, "The Soft Bulletin" and, more recently, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Sonically, the band has lost none of its wonderful intensity. However, the rough edges have been smoothed, and Wayne Coyne & Co. have continued to experiment with new sounds and textures. The result is simultaneously more innovative and more accessible than their earlier recordings. "The Soft Bulletin" is power-pop meets progressive rock meets trip-hop and space rock. Lyrically, the Lips have evolved from Dali-like weirdness to songs that movingly reflect the tension between humanity (and concepts like love, hope, courage) and the depression and alienation of post-modern society. Their philosophical searching is reflected in song titles like "Suddenly Everything Has Changed," "Waitin' for a Superman," and "What Is the Light?", and in these lines from "The Gash": I feel like the real reason that you're quitting is that you're admitting that you've lost all the will to battle on Will the fight for our sanity be the fight of our lives now that we've lost all the reasons that we thought that we had Still the battle that we're in rages on 'til the end. With this record, the Flaming Lips have created a true work of art. This is the band that everyone should be talking about - it is not hyperbole to call "The Soft Bulletin" today's "Sgt. Pepper." Unfortunately, outside of the music press and some dedicated fans, no one else seems to care. Do yourself a favor - give this one a spin. Rating: - Orchestral masterpiece It is odd how many reviewers think this is a stylistic jump from earlier albums and the preceding "Clouds Taste Metallic". This album just puts the harmonies and overdubs of "Clouds" into orchestral form. It also uses the wonderful production of Dave Fridman and ample resources of a major label (eg. studio time) to put out an album of great orchestral pop. Still there are the heavy hitting drums and great hooks: "Race for the Prize". Gone are the ripping guitars in favor of an orchestra and a synthesizer. Coyne's song topics are still bizarre as he puts out a hypothesis that the chemical that spurs love is the same that started the Big Bang. The lyrics are positively upbeat throughout the psychedelia. This album has been compared to Mercury Rev's "Deserter Songs" which i feel to be not as strong a showing as "the Soft Bulletin." This album is truly a critical fave for the right reasons. The Flaming Lips are a must see if they swing through your town. Will they ever decide to play this album start to finish with a full orchestra? I certainly hope so. Rating: - the beauty in obscurity I don't know what else I can add here. I'm the 230th person to take on reviewing it but here goes. I've followed the band for about 10 years and have taken them in as one of my favorites. Their career is one long experiment and I'm glad I was there to listen. It's been a long time since I've counted the days to the release of an album but I'm doing it now. In less than a month the new disc will be released and the reason I can't wait is because The Soft Bulletin points to the true golden age of the Flaming Lips. The path from the early 80's work to the more recent stuff is filled with barrels of noise, moments of beauty and/or obscurity, experiments in form and structure, humor and joy and a gloriously bent take on rock and pop music in general. For people who like their music straight ahead, the Lips are bound to frustrate. If that is you, their flavor may take a while to win your heart (if they ever do) but the journey will be worth while. This album was a critical darling, so those who took it as their first step may seem put off. It is the bands most fully realised album and takes their sound to lush and soaring dimensions. While it's true this album has a distant cousin in prog rock, it has a heart that Yes, Alan Parsons or King Crimson did not own. There are orchistrated flights of fancy and a few extended musical stretches but the music is never an excuse to show off or daze us with killer licks. It's more a soundscape that holds this album together. It may not be the most "groundbreaking" of albums (let's face it almost all musical ground has been broken for years) but it is amazing in it's own right. It's an interesting and well exicuted piece of music. It's still as obscure in nature as all Lips albums, only this time they are on new ground for them. Like the music of most great artists, it bares the signs of past outings but like the best it manages to find a new corner to stretch out in. The main critisism of the band comes in the form of complaints about Wayne's voice. I would love to know who these people believe to be his superiors. It could just be that I've found it fine from the start but his voice IS the voice of the band. It quivers and curls in the music and tells the stories with a charm that someone with a more "traditional" voice-a Celine Dion or Mariah Carrey? Rob Thomas or that guy from Creed?-could never pull off. All I can say is that some of my favorite artists have voices that come in for critism: Neil Young (the singer Wayne most resembles),John Prine, Jimmie Dale Gilmore,Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan. Some times the most soul crushing music is made by people with angelic, perfectly pitched singing voices. Anyway, with the technology envolved today anybody can have the "perfect" voice these critics get wet over. I'll gladly take the feeling. The obscurity and willingness to bounce from light themes into weird explorations of serious topics can lead those who are not familiar with the band to see this album as bloated or pompous. Those who know better just take it all in stride. The Flaming Lips are not like the rest of what's out there today-they do what feels right to them. They follow their muse and it often leads into songs full of bittersweet sadness and casual beauty like "Feeling yourself disintigrate" and "Waiting for superman" . They have an ear for strange sounds that become what the norm SHOULD be that has rarely failed them in the last 10 years. Their's is special place-a distinctive and creative sound that,while not for everybody, has earned them a place in the hearts of fans worldwide without having to compromise. In a musical landscape cluttered with the always replaceable popsters (Britney,boy bands,J-lo and that ilk), faceless hip hop and r&b cash cows (Fat joe,Ja Rule,Destiny's Child et all...), boring new metal space fillers (Nickleback,Creed,P.O.D,Staind and every new band with mud(d)in their name)and uninspired superstars (Almost all popular new country acts,the divas and bands ranging from Aerosmith to Sum 41) it's a gift from god that a band like The Flaming Lips exist. This album is the crowned jewel in a collection of amazing experiments and worth while achievements. I am like others who imagine parades,fireworks and glorious mental films that exist with this music. To simply reduce an achievement like this as a Pink Floyd or Yes knock off is an injustice. This album,and this band, is something else completly. Try it-you just might like it...

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