Artist bio

Beloved in the underground rock world for its wacky psychedelic rock, Oklahoma City's Flaming Lips finagled a major-label deal with Warner Bros. in the early '90s, only to flirt with one-hit wonder status after "She Don't Use Jelly" blew up in 1994. But the Wayne Coyne-led outfit was unhindered by all the new attention. Instead, its records became progressively more high-concept and original, beginning with 1997's Zaireeka, a complete album with its constituent tracks spread across four distinct CDs. 1999's The Soft Bulletin featured some of the most beautiful music the Lips had ever fashioned, offering a compassionate counterpoint to ruminations on love, death, and the nature of life itself. The record drew the group previously unfathomable levels of critical acclaim which carried over into 2002's impressive Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. At first, you may have wanted to just turn them off, but now, you can't wait to hear what the Flaming Lips will unveil next.

Albums by this artist

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002)

The Soft Bulletin (Recommended) (1999)

Zaireeka (1997)

Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (1993)

Telepathic Surgery (1989)

Interviews

Wayne's World
January 12, 2003

To Be A Flea On A Whale
October 18, 1999

Flaming Lips

The Soft Bulletin

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

NATN Recommended Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin Warner Bros, 1999 RiYL: Built To Spill, Beach Boys, Olivia Tremor Control, Moles

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."

His lyrics have always addressed lofty concerns without submitting to empty cliches, and on The Soft Bulletin they are no different. Coyne uses a super hero's absence as a metaphor for unfulfilled promises on "Superman," while narrating the unwavering determination of two scientists hard at work on the cure for a disease in "Race For The Prize." It's on this song that the Lips demonstrate their expertise with the pop form, and their ability to craft a winning tune without just making it "weird" for weird's sake.

Overall, The Soft Bulletin is one of the Flaming Lips' most listenable records and another step up the ladder toward pop perfection. Now that's inspiring.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"