A Quick Question for Flaming Lips Fans

Tough to say.

You could be adventurous and take the step into the wild early days of the Lips with In a Priest-Driven Ambulance if you're a fan of weird, acid-fried, garage alternative rock.

You could go for The Soft Bulletin, that universally acclaimed thing. It's symphonic yet not bloated, bright yet philosophical, and manages to be trivial, mundane, and soft while still being an incredibly deep and serious album. It's the epitome of Wayne Coyne's courage in humanity in the face of despair at the lifeless universe motif.

You could go for Embryonic if you really dig krautrock, psychedelia, acid, and copious effect pedals.




Those are your more sane options.


Edited by stonebeard - March 20 2010 at 00:30

Sonically, the Lips never really stayed the same album to album, although pre-1992-ish, the progression in style was less drastic and more gradually polished and adventurous (still remaining in the acid-burnt garage rock they did up until 1992 or 93....Interestingly, I remember Wayne Coyne saying he'd never done acid, which I find astonishing given he painted a lot of their f**ked-up album covers and his lyrics are balls-to-the-wall insane sometimes) So, you'd expect to find about the same kind of music up until Hit to Death in the Future Head, only with increasing ambition and skill. Hit and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart are more grounded and slightly less weird musically, though the lyrics are always going to remain messed. This era is more traditional alternative rock, especially Transmissions. Clouds Taste Metallic is an odd album for me to pin. I used to give it 9/10 at best, but I don't find it appeals to me as much these days. It's a more bubbly, shimmering, Beach Boys-do-acid and collab with Sonic Youth kind of album. It might just have their weirdest lyrics. Then Zaireeka is just Zaireeka.

For the record, Yoshimi is my favorite of theirs and on a good day, it definitely is in my top 3 albums of all time.


Edited by stonebeard - March 20 2010 at 03:43

Well I ended up getting the Soft Bulletin, and stonebeard it's what you said it was. A very enjoyable album to be sure, but I'll need many more listens before I can nail it down. I am becoming more interested in the pre-Zaireeka lips and I think I will try out Transmissions from the Satellite heart next.

Edited by R-A-N-M-A - March 21 2010 at 22:47

Try.... the eighties!!