The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

For a while now I’ve considered Race For The Prize to be one of my favorite songs ever. I am absolutely in love with that warped synth string that plays as the intro and post chorus of the song. I also love the hyper distorted lo fi drums that play with the strings a lot. The piano rolls and background vocals are also so pretty during that post chorus. The verses and choruses are also equally catchy and impossible not to sing along to. This is such a goddamn fun song with AMAZING production. Also wow is it ever psychedelic.

The little orchestral bits on instrumentation on A Spoonful Weighs a Ton is also amazing and super pretty. The intro vocal melody is also super catchy and sounds beautiful soaring over the background vocals. Who knew the band who made the super boring Hear It Is would go along to make something so psychedelic and experimental in the future. The thick bass synth and sequenced beats were also very cool additions to this song.

“I Accedentally Touched my Heeaaeaaeaaaad. And noticed that i had been bleeeeeeeeding”. I absolutely love these intro lyrics for some reason. Wayne’s weird cracked falsetto sounds so good singing those lyrics over this kind of cheesy sounding orchestral piece. The marching pianos and booming drums when the song drops sound great. This is barely rock anymore also. This is WAYYYYYYY different to anything they’d done prior, but I’m not complaining. That refrain of “i stood up and i said Yeah” is so difficult to not sing along too also. The little peppy switch up after the second half is really great and a nice change.

The Spiderbite Song is one of those songs I annoy my girlfriend or anyone else I’m with by singing along to. Wayne’s cracked falsetto is so easy to sing along with. Plus I absolutely love the lyrics to this song. They’re super weird, but also kind of cute in a super odd way. This is one of the catchiest choruses I've ever heard too, and I love how frank the lyrics are. It’s just so to the point and I love that. “I’m glad that it didn’t destroy you, how sad that would be. Cause if it destroyed you, it would destroy meeeeeeeeeeeeee”. The cycling drum rolls that are oddly edited during the verses are super cool too. Actually this is one of my favorite instrumentals ever as well. I love all the weird little panned basses and synths. Also UGH the switch up in the second half is so good. Like the choir is so good it shouldn’t be allowed. I also love how cute the lyrics are. It’s just a freaky little weird love song… and god it’s so good. It’s one of those songs so good, it makes me, as a musician, jealous.

Buggin is yet another one of my favorite songs ever. GOD IT’S SO CATCHY “THEY FLY IN THE AAAAAIR, AS YOU COMB YOUR HAIRRRR”. This is another song I annoy people by singing along to. But I don't care, I love this song so much. The slightly more rock influenced instrumental is great here too, the deep distorted bass riffs and hard rocking beat are great, but the appeal really does come down to those amazing background vocals, strings and pianos.

I really like the distorted, driving kick drum What Is The Light opens up with. This album has a super cool way of blending high production value with more lo fi production value. The addition of the organ on this song is super fun, I love the way it totally takes up the high end, while the distorted bass takes up the whole low end. It’s a cool combination of sounds. The piano with all the delay is cool too, I love the way it echoes.

The transition from What Is The Light to the next track The Observer is super cool too. This track, while being an instrumental, is still very good, I love it’s addition to this album. It acts as a spooky little interlude, or an extended outro from the last song.

Waiting For a Superman has another one of the catchiest vocal melodies on the whole album. I also think it has one of the most to the point danceable drum grooves. The vocals also sound pretty lo fi and eq-ed in a way to sound very light and thin, making them sound as if they’re floating in a way. The pianos on this song are also super fun.

I really like the almost hip hop type drum groove on Suddenly Everything Has Changed . It sounds like it was made by a drum machine actually. The song also lives up to the title in how whenever he says “and suddenly everything has changed” the whole track pretty much stops. It’s a fun little detail.

The Gash has a SUPER epic sounding intro with tons of vocal layers, and strings. When the actual verse kicks in it sounds very thick and heavy still. There are also lots of piano layers and glitchy effects on this song. The pitched down vocals during the verse with the choir adds a nice little touch. Wayne’s solo verse sounds amazing here too. This song also does feel like a moment that should be near the end of the album. This really does feel like things wrapping up and getting ready for a closing.

The panning beatboxing on Feeling Yourself Disintegrate is a super trippy little addition to this song that I Love a lot. The bass edited to play the same rhythm as the beatboxing is super cool too. Once again the background choir vocals sound AMAZING too. Especially with the bells and the synth chords mixed in.

Sleeping on the Roof is a very quiet little piece that sounds like an extended outro to the previous track. The last track really felt like a loud and dramatic outro, and this sounds like a pretty little chill moment right after.

As a whole, damn. This thing is good. I love every track on this so fucking much, and i return to this constantly. The combination of alt rock, psychedelia, and orchestral music is honestly like nothing i’ve heard before. PLEASE check this out if you haven’t already.