Best Flaming Lips Album

[AfroMullet]

Which one should I buy? The Soft Bulletin? Which one? Tell me now.





Now.

[The Jackamo]

both Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots are really good.

[biggins]

Yoshimi. My knowledge is a bit limited, but that shit is some concept genius.

[meatdrink9]

I think working backwards chronologically is probably the best way to start. I think the more recent the work the more accessible it is.

So:

Yoshimi
The Soft Bulletin (if you like Yoshimi and the Soft Bulletin there are several other discs worth of other music they made during this time frame, The Soft Bulletin Companion Discs, Yoshimi wins, the AOL sessions, Okie Noodling, X-mas on Mars tracks, Spongebob, Late Night Tales White Stripes cover etc...)
Zaireeka
Clouds Taste Metallic
Transmissions from the Satelite Heart
(this is where I quit going backwards, I downloaded a few of their older tracks....and well....I think they've come a long way. Most of the old stuff doesn't do much for me)
Hit to death in the future head
Priest driven ambulance
Telepathic surgery
oh my gawd
hear it is

There are great tracks on Zaireeka, clouds and transmisions, but there's no question the lips really hit stride with The Soft Bulletin. It and Yoshimi are currently probably in my top 20 albums of all time.

[AfroMullet]

Thanks duders. Since you insist, it looks like I'll have to buy Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi.

[biggins]

watched 'fearless freaks' last night. Those guys are so fantastic. Wayne Coyne seems like a truely interesting cat. Good movie, check it.

[Dexter Rutecki]

I was just reading about that movie, guess it's a pretty interesting docu-pic done by a friend/neighbor of theirs. The band admits that they used to be really crappy, but I guess the implication is that they've improved--I think I've only heard one song of theirs since that 'jelly' single they had.

[meatdrink9]

Fearless freaks is rock solid. There's another thread about it over in the regular forum.

[hev]

My vote would definately be soft bulletin. yoshimi has probably the most broad apeal I think and these clouds taste metalic rocks.


yoshimi fans should check out the kleptons remix.


they give it out for free if you have a torrent client
http://www.kleptones.com/pages/The%2...Robots.torrent

[tuffy109]

(this is where I quit going backwards, I downloaded a few of their older tracks....and well....I think they've come a long way. Most of the old stuff doesn't do much for me)
Hit to death in the future head
Priest driven ambulance

u r dumb. those two are their best albums.

[meatdrink9]

u r dumb. those two are their best albums.

Didn't we already clear up this subjective thing? I downloaded portions of those and just went "meh". And by "two of their best" I assume you mean better than the 3 albums before those two cause all the ones that followed are money.

[tuffy109]

And by "two of their best" I assume you mean better than the 3 albums before those two cause all the ones that followed are money.

was that calculus?

is said those two ARE their best. hands down. those albums had energy. the new ones are like pink floyd without roger waters.

of course it's subjective, as is my comment of you being dumb.

[bio-smear]

Anyone else heard the new Lips album: "At War With The Mystics?"
Decent. Gratuitous use of fuzz. The first song "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is pretty good, but the rest is a little weak when compared to Yoshimi and the Soft Bulletin. Pompei Am Gotterdamerung is straight out of Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii(figuratively.)

[uncle crud]

Yoshimi is pure Karo syrup. it's like eating a gigantic Pecan Pie. if you like that kind of sweetness, it's very good. I think it's fey, twee, happy (in a derogatory sense). and if I want twee I would prefer to listen to Apples in Stereo. and a concept album? rarely a good idea, IMO, but The Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk at the Cubist Castle can't be out-done in that arena.

I have Yoshimi and I listen to it to fall asleep.

[Shepherd Wong]

The new album is awesome. It's along the lines of Yoshimi but I think I like it more.

[meatdrink9]

I've got to admit that the new album hasn't really grabbed me yet. I'd heard 4 or 5 songs of a few months ago and none of them really grabbed me. I liked Mr Ambulance Driver better after the video. Pompeii is hands down my early favorite. These guys went in a completely different direction and were a lot less serious with the subject matter this time. There's a good Drozd interview on flaminglips.com regarding the new album. Obviously I'll keep spinning this thing, but....the new grandaddy is rocking my world. It hasn't left my CD player since I got it. Too bad they broke up. Hopefully they'll get a bunch of hype and good press off this album. There atleast needs to be a couple farewell concerts. I'd put "just like the fambly cat" above "sumday", but not quite "sophtware slump".

[meatdrink9]

BTW, Pompeii really does kick ass. Maybe I'll warm up to more of the tracks..we'll see.

[bio-smear]

Ok glad to see some of you are in agreement. Frankly, I think this album had more potential, but the vocal melodies are just not jumping out like Yoshimi did...bubblegum space rock or not. Maybe it's the production. Wayne's voice is just not cutting through with as much conviction.

[Arty50]

There are great tracks on Zaireeka

Also, it's a good excuse to own 4 stereos.

[StokeSmack]

Fey?? Twee?? Whatever, dude, it's sublime. Going in the other direction, try some Cobra Verde.

I understand Yoshimi in 5.1 surround sounds great, but i'm not about to buy another copy.

[uncle crud]

Fey?? Twee?? Whatever, dude, it's sublime. Going in the other direction, try some Cobra Verde.

I understand Yoshimi in 5.1 surround sounds great, but i'm not about to buy another copy.

yo jack it's called personal taste, eh? I feel the same way about those "essential" Beach Boys albums like "Pet Sounds" and "Smiley Smile" which both sound to me like oh, I don't know, a bunch of fey twee Peters Pan. not my gig at all. for sure Yoshimi is studio bliss, I'm just not into that kind of stuff. I was glad that someone had given me a burned copy, 'cuz that's not the kind of music I'd be happy to pay $$$ for. example of the last album that made me want to demand my money back: Jets to Brazil, "Four Cornered Night". from the fuzzed out valleyhaze proto-David Lowery of "Orange Rhyming Dictionary" to what? a bunch of stupid, "sweet" ballads and pretty anthems? no mang, that don't do any ting for me or mine. now I'm not saying that these twee artists are not creative, not intelligent, not worth listening too. just saying that they're not my style, jack.

as to Cobra Verde, aye there's some fun. Doug Gillard -- his old band Death of Samantha I saw open for Sonic Youth at Maxwell's in early 1987, back when I still lived on the right coast and at that time in the Joy of Zee. CV backed GBV on what, 2, 3 albums? Do the Collapse, some others... I think?

[StokeSmack]

RE: CV backing GBV, Mag Earwig, for shure, not sure about the others. But Viva La Muerte by the CV, their first LP, melts the wax off my boards every time. Pure unadultared North Coast sickness. Death in Small Doses.

[dookeyXXX]

Hit To Death In The Future Head is the FLips album I always gravitate towards. It is easily one of my favorite albums, period.
It is kind of their major transitional album, too, in regards to their evolving sound. It still has all the noize and abrasion of their earlier work, but begins to showcase their growing fascination with mellow, smooth psyche.

Yoshimi is also great, but it is more like an 80s-era Yes album (think Tormato) than a FLips joint, imho.