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The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Audio CD

A fair review of the The Flaming Lips "The Soft Bulletin" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Flaming Lips reviews here, or go back to the The Flaming Lips tabs.

The Flaming Lips Band: The Flaming Lips
Title: The Soft Bulletin
Rating:
Release Date: 2008-01-13
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Race for the Prize 2: Spoonful Weighs a Ton 3: Spark That Bled 4: Spiderbite Song 5: Buggin' 6: What Is the Light? 7: Observer 8: Waitin' for a Superman 9: Suddenly Everything Has Changed 10: Gash 11: Feeling Yourself Disintegrate 12: Sleeping on the Roof 13: Race for the Prize 14: Waitin' for a Superman

Something glowing from inside


For the Flaming Lips, that album is "The Soft Bulletin," their 1999 opus -- a trippy, epic, ingeniously strange collection compiled of only good songs, with a mind-bending epic quality that never lets up. With every truly good rock band, they hit their peak in a stunning, magnificent album that leaves people breathless. It's enchanting, soft, bittersweet and undeniably sunny in its beauty -- a real experience.

It opens with a glorious Mellotron wave, which is deliberately just a little off, at the start of "Race For The Prize (Sacrifice Of The New Scientists). " "Two scientists were racing/For the good of all mankind/Both of them side by side/So determined," Wayne Coyne croons. With, of course, offbeat echoes and electronic wavers and whispers layered over the indierock melody.

Without sounding overpolished, the songs that follow seem very carefully structured and polished; not a single note is out of place. Coyne sings above smooth, flowing pop songs with a catchy edge. And what songs he sings -- about supermen, debilitating spider bites, buzzin' bugs, scientists trying to cure terminal diseases, and wounded mathematicians.

"Soft Bulletin" also touches on some more uplifting topics -- "What Is The Light" is a purely enchanting variation on the typical love song: "What is the light/That you have/Shining all around you?" And "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" is a soaring number about how "they" saved the world with the power of love. "And though they were sad/They rescued everyone/They lifted up the sun. . . "

Not that "uplifting" means cheesy or sappy. The Flaming Lips seem to be completely in earnest. What's more, they add a space-acid flavor to their music which keeps it from ever getting too. . . well, ordinary. The best description I can come up with is: it's like a big inspirational show on another planet, complete with a celestial pop orchestra. There. If that doesn't make sense, nothing will.

It's hard to find a given album that is entirely made out of excellent, listenable songs. There's usually at least one bad (or mediocre) apple -- including on most other Lips albums. "Soft Bulletin" has none. It has a unique kaleidoscope effect, with shimmering psychedelic music and hopeful, philosophical songwriting.

Wayne Coyne's somewhat nasal vocals actually sound good over this offbeat music, especially when they are echoed and layered. The music itself is wildly complex: flowing basslines and rather muffled drumming, with strings and orchestration. Laid over it all are layers and washes of synth and blips, which add the spacey final touch.

"Soft Bulletin" is probably the best album the Flaming Lips have ever made -- musically rich, lyrically uplifting, and thoroughly enjoyable to listen to. A modern classic.


You can see a complete list of all The Flaming Lips discography, or go back to the The Flaming Lips tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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