The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin [24 bit FLAC] vinyl

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (2002) [24 bit FLAC] vinyl

Warner Bros. / PIAS Records / 0555-10109-1
Released: 2002
Genre: Pop/Rock
Style: Indie Rock
Codec: FLAC
Bit Rate: ~ 2,800 kbps
Bits Per Sample: 24
Sample Rate: 96,000 Hz

A1 Race for the Prize (Sacrifice of the New Scientists)
A2 A Spoonful Weighs a Ton
A3 The Spark That Bled (The Softest Bullet Ever Shot)
A4 The Spiderbite Song

B1 Buggin' (The Buzz of Love Is Busy Buggin' You)
B2 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)
B3 The Observer

C1 Waitin' For a Superman (Is it Gettin' Heavy??)
C2 Suddenly Everything Has Changed (Death Anxiety Caused by Moments of Boredom)
C3 The Gash (Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician)

D1 Slow Motion
D2 Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
D3 Sleeping on the Roof (Excerpt From "Should We Keep the Severed Head Awake??")

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.