The Flaming Lips have spent nearly fifteen years stretching the confines of pop music, sometimes subtly (a la 1994's blip on the hit radio chart "She Don't Use Jelly") and sometimes with an almost unheard-of sense of ambition (1997's 4-CD release Zaireeka). The Soft Bulletin, the Oklahoma City band's ninth album, touches on all of the records the Lips have released this decade. And although it "sounds" little like Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin is most definitely a product of the collective thought processes that brought that massive undertaking to fruition.

This record condenses Zaireeka's sensory overload into a made-for-headphones listening experience, alternating between lush, piano-laden numbers and upbeat, catchy pop/rock. Despite the complexity of the songs, they make a strong emotional impact thanks to a crisper sound that couldn't rise above the distortion of 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic. Reduced to a trio after the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones, the Lips willingly follow any paths the songs might offer, almost always arriving at something worthwhile.

Although probably unintentional, the spirit of the Beach Boys' most adventurous work hovers over The Soft Bulletin. "Buggin" sets lovely vocal harmonies over harp flourishes and a sweet piano melody and the only lyrics I can recall that make mosquito bites sound appealing. The Baroque orchestral beginning of "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" makes perfect sense in this context, as do the simply funky detours in "The Spark That Bled" which imagine Brian Wilson as a '70s soul troubadour.

The band's newly audible bottom end keeps the toe a' tapping. "What Is The Light" is constructed in a similar symphonic style of songs from Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On, as strings and bass scales gradually fill the crannies around singer Wayne Coyne's oddly melodic vocal. A muddy kick drum pattern segues into "The Observer," a haunting, mostly instrumental wall of symphonic sound. The band can be found really messing around with song structure to fascinating effect on "Suddenly Everything Has Changed," which seems to utilize a new sound or texture at every possible opportunity.

Coyne explained in the press release that accompanied The Soft Bulletin that some of the songs were leftovers that could never be finished during the Zaireeka sessions. "The Gash" would probably have made the cut, with its thick chorus of voices singing about "the fight for sanity / the fight for our lives." By the same token, Coyne turns in some of his most touching vocal performances here, best heard on the gorgeous, relatively straightforward "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" and the angelic verses of "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton."