Soooo... I somehow hadn't really listened to The Flaming Lips properly in my life. Until this week when I bought Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1, which I've fallen in love with.
What would you wise people recommend in their back catalogue, where to start?
Anything really
from In A Priest Driven Ambulance onwards.
Soft Bulletin for new lips
Hit to death in the futurehead for old lips
imo
have you...
got the the thing about the Yoshimi release being a concept album? Have a listen, start to finish, and it's all there and pretty clever.
At War With The Mystics is a pretty good 'Lips album too
http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/759277
Yeah, I had...
a quick look on Wiki which mentioned the concept album jazz (not actual jazz... you know what I mean), thanks for the linkage and tips (everyone).
I have no idea why I had not got into them before. Strange the gaps people have in their musical knowledge... I smell a new thread about this. :)
the Yoshimi album...
always makes me happy, it has some of the best individual flaming lips songs but one or two stinkers as well. The flaming lips website used to have these weird little cartoons in the gallery that apparently followed the story but they are no more, booo...
the soft bulletin
is widely regarded as their best album, and by many people as one of the best albums ever.
i'd go with that
race for the prize and feeling yourself disintegrate are incredible. never get bored of that album.
Of course the Soft Bulletin
But also 'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.'
I can't believe
that 'Clouds Taste Metallic' hasn't been mentioned. Gotta be their finest of the Ronald Jones guitar-led era. Get that and The Soft Bulletin I say...
^This
It's their best album. Period. Closely followed by Soft Bulletin
The guitars might be a bit raw for some but the songwriting and lyrics are top notch. I also love Zaireeka but you need to have 4 CD players at the ready which I've only done a couple of times. I really ought to mix me a copy.
Yoshimi is my least favourite Lips album bar the first 3 (which are still pretty good if you give them time).
Mercury Rev -Yerself is Steam
If you want to listen to other bands of their ilk.
The Soft Bulletin
T'is pretty mcuh essential.
i started
with Yoshimi a few years ago which made me love them. then i got soft bulletin and hit to death in the future head which are even better imo. get them! you wont regret it.
people
who don't like the Flaming Lips, they're bad people.
I don't think there's anything the Flaming Lips have done which isn't fantastic.
Oh, apart from their "can't get you out of my head" cover, which was dogshit.
Go and see them live.
Album wise, just buy them all and be done with it.
They're right
Buy everything from Priest Driven Ambulance onwards! (My fav Lips track is on that one - "There You Are").
The stuff before is very raw. But if you want to be a completist, you can get hold of the compilation "Finally the punk rockers are taking acid", which incorporates pretty much everything from 1984 to 1989. Be warned, it's nothing much like their nineties albums. Even if you don't buy it, READ THE BOOKLET by Wayne. It explains a lot about where he's coming from.
The more I hear about them...
the more i think I'll just go and buy most of their back catalogue. Well, I say 'Buy'...
Having said that, I probably will actually pay money for The Soft Bulletin. Paying money for music normally makes me feel sick.
If you're only going to fork out for the one:
....then soft bulletin is the one that truly deserves your £9.99. Musically, and in production values, their best effort. And it is (don't be scared now) a great concept album - about the meaning of human knowledge and human endeavour and life and death in a godless and essentially pointless universe - which is what Wayne has actually been banging on about for the last 30 years, in the most veiled and obtuse way possible.
Ooh, I've gone all "liner notes". Sorry.
It's also a great album to listen to if you are very, very high.
Clouds Taste Metallic
Old Lips and New Lips together- Soft Bulletein is a better album, but this sums up their career before and shows where they go after.
Quite drunk, wales garandslam. apologies for speeling.
Ha, drunk postings...
are the best. Like drunk texting, but without any of the messy fallout in the morning. Well, generally... until you declare the guy from the Wombats as a modern John Lennon. Or something.
However, you appear to be a wise drunk, huzzah
Soft Bulletin or Clouds Taste Metallic
Their live gigs
If you ever get a chance to see them live - they are excellent - real stage performers
Soft Bulletin is almost the perfect album.
After that I would say Clouds Taste Metallic and Transmissions.. are both excellent.
I don't really like their earlier stuff, I've got all the albums but none of the first 4 do anything for me.