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So where does a band go after releasing the most defiantly experimental record of its career? If you're the Flaming Lips, you keep rushing headlong into the unknown -- The Soft Bulletin, their follow-up to the four-disc gambit Zaireeka, is in many ways their most daring work yet, a plaintively emotional, lushly symphonic pop masterpiece eons removed from the mind-warping noise of their past efforts. Though more conventional in concept and scope than Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin clearly reflects its predecessor's expansive sonic palette. Its multidimensional sound is positively celestial, a shape-shifting pastiche of blissful melodies, heavenly harmonies, and orchestral flourishes; but for all its headphone-friendly innovations, the music is still amazingly accessible, never sacrificing popcraft in the name of radical experimentation. (Its aims are so perversely commercial, in fact, that hit R&B remixer Peter Mokran tinkered with the cuts "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin' for a Superman" in the hopes of earning mainstream radio attention.) But what's most remarkable about The Soft Bulletin is its humanity -- these are Wayne Coyne's most personal and deeply felt songs, as well as the warmest and most giving. No longer hiding behind surreal vignettes about Jesus, zoo animals, and outer space, Coyne pours his heart and soul into each one of these tracks, poignantly exploring love, loss, and the fate of all mankind; highlights like "The Spiderbite Song" and "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" are so nakedly emotional and transcendentally spiritual that it's impossible not to be moved by their beauty. There's no telling where the Lips will go from here, but it's almost beside the point -- not just the best album of 1999, The Soft Bulletin might be the best record of the entire decade.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo
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Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Dave Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Dave Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Peter Mokran, Additional Producer, RemixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Dave Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Dave Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Peter Mokran, Additional Producer, RemixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Michael Ivins, Writer - Steven Drozd, Producer, Drums, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Wayne Coyne, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - Peter Mokran, Additional Producer, RemixingEngineer - Steve Hall, MasteringEngineer - The Flaming Lips, MainArtist - SCOTT BOOKER, Producer - Mike Ivins, Producer, Bass Guitar, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer - David Fridmann, Producer, Audio Recording Engineer, MixingEngineer
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
Album review
So where does a band go after releasing the most defiantly experimental record of its career? If you're the Flaming Lips, you keep rushing headlong into the unknown -- The Soft Bulletin, their follow-up to the four-disc gambit Zaireeka, is in many ways their most daring work yet, a plaintively emotional, lushly symphonic pop masterpiece eons removed from the mind-warping noise of their past efforts. Though more conventional in concept and scope than Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin clearly reflects its predecessor's expansive sonic palette. Its multidimensional sound is positively celestial, a shape-shifting pastiche of blissful melodies, heavenly harmonies, and orchestral flourishes; but for all its headphone-friendly innovations, the music is still amazingly accessible, never sacrificing popcraft in the name of radical experimentation. (Its aims are so perversely commercial, in fact, that hit R&B remixer Peter Mokran tinkered with the cuts "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin' for a Superman" in the hopes of earning mainstream radio attention.) But what's most remarkable about The Soft Bulletin is its humanity -- these are Wayne Coyne's most personal and deeply felt songs, as well as the warmest and most giving. No longer hiding behind surreal vignettes about Jesus, zoo animals, and outer space, Coyne pours his heart and soul into each one of these tracks, poignantly exploring love, loss, and the fate of all mankind; highlights like "The Spiderbite Song" and "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" are so nakedly emotional and transcendentally spiritual that it's impossible not to be moved by their beauty. There's no telling where the Lips will go from here, but it's almost beside the point -- not just the best album of 1999, The Soft Bulletin might be the best record of the entire decade.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 14 track(s)
- Total length: 00:58:24
- Main artists: The Flaming Lips
- Label: Warner Records
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock Alternative & Indie
© 1999 Warner Records Inc. ℗ 1999 Warner Records Inc.
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