Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips tabs The Flaming Lips discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Flaming Lips guitar tabs

CD reviews

The Soft Bulletin

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.

Band: The Flaming Lips
Title: The Soft Bulletin
Rating:

Release Date: 2006-01-31
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Race for the Prize 2: Spoonful Weighs a Ton 3: Spark That Bled 4: Slow Motion 5: What Is the Light? 6: Observer 7: Waitin' for a Superman 8: Suddenly Everything Has Changed 9: Gash 10: Feeling Yourself Disintegrate 11: Sleeping on the Roof 12: Spiderbite Song 13: Buggin' 14: Race for the Prize [5.1 Surround Sound] 15: Spoonful Weighs a Ton [5.1 Surround Sound] 16: Spark That Bled [5.1 Surround Sound] 17: Slow Motion [5.1 Surround Sound] 18: What Is the Light? [5.1 Surround Sound] 19: Observer [5.1 Surround Sound] 20: Waitin' for a Superman [5.1 Surround Sound] 21: Suddenly Everything Has Changed [5.1 Surround Sound] 22: Gash [5.1 Surround Sound] 23: Feeling Yourself Disintegrate [5.1 Surround Sound] 24: Sleeping on the Roof [5.1 Surround Sound] 25: Spiderbite Song [5.1 Surround Sound] 26: Buggin' [5.1 Surround Sound] 27: [DVD] [5.1 Surround Sound] 28: Race for the Prize [DVD] 29: Waitin' for a Superman [DVD] 30: 1000ft Hands [DVD][Outtake] 31: Captain [DVD][Outtake] 32: Satellite of You [DVD][Outtake] 33: Up Above the Daily Hum [DVD][Version] 34: Switch That Turns Off the Universe [DVD][Version] 35: We Can't Predict the Future [DVD][Version] 36: It Remained Unrealizable [DVD][Version]

My First Flaming Lips CD
(Wonderfully Wierd) This CD was recommended by a friend. I was born in the early 50s so I was not familiar with this type of music. I instantly loved it upon the first listen. I am now have several Flaming Lips CDs. This is not really a review; read what others have to say. If you like this kind of music, I most highly recommend this wonderful masterpiece. .

Fantasitc album. Production good but dated.
I won't comment further on the music itself - I recommend listening to it if you haven't already, so that you can discover it for yourself. As others have said, this is a wonderful album.

The real reason I'm writing is to comment on the 5. 1 production. It's good and, again as others have said, it didn't follow convention at the time. However it's now showing its age. Compare the Soft Bulletin with the production on At War With the Mystics, for example, and you'll notice a huge improvement on the latter. I stress that I'm not comparing the music of the two albums, simply the production. On Mystics it is truly stunning in places! I strongly urge you to to give that a listen on a decent 5. 1 system if you haven't already.

What is the light?
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 every truly good rock band, they hit their peak in a stunning, magnificent album that leaves people breathless. It's not musical perfection, but close to it.

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.

And what does this rerelease have? Among other things, outtakes and extra songs such as the enchantingly ethereal "Up Above The Daily Hum," the hauntingly beautiful "Switch That Turns off the Universe," and others. Wayne Coyne describes the experience of actually MAKING the album, which offers a bit more insight into the already evocative songs.

And of course, the videos: "Race for the Prize" is suitably colorful and bizarre, with joggers covered in electrodes and Coyne singing in front of a brass band. And the other is a shimmering, sunset-toned video full of flowers, fountains, head injuries, and a little boy who finds amazing powers in his little superhero cape. Adorable.

"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.

It's not that great
I bought the CD/DVD based on the reviews here. I feel my money was wasted. I only liked a few songs "Spider Bite" and "1000FT Hands". The distorto drums were just annoying and what otherwise would have been OK music.

some people dont get it
. and thats one of many reasons why this album is special.

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.