The Flaming Lips raced upwards to the vanguard with the emotional optimism of this psychedelic symphonic swoon. The band had followed up their breakthrough 'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' with the pop pet sounds of 'Clouds Taste Metallic' and the wildly experimental 'Zaireka' (with four disks that could be played separately or simultaneously). Their next album combines both of those sensibilities into the most accessible work of their career. 'The Soft Bulletin' features Wayne Coyne on songwriting, vocals, guitar, and percussion; Michael Ivins on bass guitar and vocals; and Steven Drozd on songwriting, guitar, accompaniment harmony vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, drums, xylophone, glockenspiel, and unison tuned pedal steel guitar. Dave Fridmann and the band did the production, mixing, and recording with additional production by Scott Booker and Peter Mokran, and mastering by Steve Hall.
Coyne says 'The Soft Bulletin' is "about love and death and the gap in between...We have arrived everywhere that we've gone by ambulance. We've never come in a limousine. It's always been, we've just made it. They thought we were DOA, they threw us in the back anyway, we got there and at the last minute we've been revived. It's really been a pathetically long time, and it's only been in the last six or seven years that any reasonable human being would've thought it an advantage to be with us. Any sensible person would've said, 'Listen to the music these guys make, look at them, this is not gonna work.' If we'd been driving around and had some accident where our equipment got stolen or something, we easily could've said, 'Gee, this really doesn't make any sense, why are we spending everything we have, all of our time, pursuing this silly goal?...A lot of people think it's gonna be a bunch of synthesisers all talking to each other or some insects we recorded in a field. But a lot of it has a lot of structure and melody and music stuff. We're not really interested in that Stockhausen approach that is interesting in concept but kind of boring to listen to. We want to do stuff that is exciting to listen to even if it's boring in concept. I hope we do a little bit of both...I fear that by the time we get to the year 2000 the music scene will sound like 1979. Whose fault is it? It's our fault and your fault if we can't put in some idea that is unique to our time. Let's do something so we're not just revelling in how great our fucking record collection is. There is great urgency in there somewhere to not just be an accumulation of what we already know about music and culture. I think it's sad, but it doesn't destroy the good around it. To me, depressing songs are like feeding the pigeons: you throw the breadcrumbs and they come round and then you can. shoot them. What depressing songs do is they get all the sad feelings and then destroy them and leave you feeling the sadness has been a little bit washed away. Sad songs just rock...Any time you go on about the big theme, the next thing in line is the big failure. You tried to get on the top - too bad you didn't make it. But we have no fear of the big themes now. We want people to have heightened expectations. So often you go to concerts and you expect it to suck. Sometimes I think my standards at concerts are like my standards for watching TV: you expect it to be mediocre, and if it isn't you're pleasantly surprised...I think with us, I'm hoping that people have a heightened expectation, but don't actually know what to expect. And I'm glad to oblige, because really I've got nothing but ideas. I've got endless ideas."
'The Soft Bulletin' went to number thirty-nine in the UK and number twelve on the US heatseekers album chart.
http://www.flaminglips.com/
https://myspace.com/flaminglips/music/album/the-soft-bulletin-9789363
Side One
1. "Race for the Prize" ("Sacrifice of the New Scientists")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs56ygZplQA
2. "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVsyJtCsqeA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgKgvSW5YE
3. "The Spark That Bled" ("The Softest Bullet Ever Shot")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1GtKOnq5sk
4. "The Spiderbite Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzU6vinZwhc
Side Two
5. "Buggin'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV-YJWWmp-M
6. "What Is the Light?" ("An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekvbKPthh5Q
7. "The Observer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkQ_3dV4utU
Side Three
8. "Waitin' for a Superman" ("Is It Gettin' Heavy?")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0AOG7ciuJo
9. "Suddenly Everything Has Changed" ("Death Anxiety Caused by Moments of Boredom")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPhR1atjoBg
10. "The Gash" ("Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBIP1m2YuEg
Side Four
11. "Slow Motion"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_AHWBagi_o
12. "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate"
13. "Sleeping on the Roof" (excerpt from "Should We Keep the Severed Head Awake??")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-bOAqslcY
No comments:
Post a Comment