Pitchfork ranked the album 3rd on the Top 100 albums of the 1990s list, and awarded it a rare score of 10.0. In 2006, Robert Dimery chose The Soft Bulletin and its follow-up Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots as part of his book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The Soft Bulletin is considered by some to be partially responsible for establishing the latter-day identity of the Flaming Lips, and as its following expanded over the years after its release, paving the way to their being among the most well-respected groups of the 2000s. The album is now considered by many to be the Flaming Lips's masterpiece. The Soft Bulletin was lauded by critics and fans alike and topped numerous "Best of 1999" lists. Reception Professional ratings Aggregate scores The original photograph was featured in a 1966 Life magazine article on LSD. The cover artwork of the album is a modified version of a photograph taken by Lawrence Schiller titled The Acid Test: Neal Cassady, which according to Schiller, depicts Neal Cassady dancing with his own shadow during an Acid Test conducted by the Merry Pranksters. This sound was achieved in part by detuning and layering multiple MIDI keyboards as opposed to recording a live orchestra. Its large, layered, symphonic sound has also earned it a reputation as the Pet Sounds of the 1990s from a few critics. The album was also noted for its fusion of ordinary rock instruments, electronic beats, and synthesizers. The album was considered to mark a change in the course for the band, with more traditional catchy melodies, accessible-sounding music (their previous album Zaireeka was a quadruple album of experimental sounds meant to be played on four separate stereo systems simultaneously), and more serious and thoughtful lyrics. The album was released to widespread acclaim, and was hailed by critics as a departure from their previous guitar-heavy alternative rock sound into a more layered, intricately arranged work. Records on May 17, 1999, in the United Kingdom, and on June 22, 1999, in the United States. 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.The Soft Bulletin is the ninth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released by Warner Bros. 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. (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. 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. Though more conventional in concept and scope than Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin clearly reflects its predecessor's expansive sonic palette. 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.
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