![]() The band refused to start writing songs on an acoustic guitar to avoid alt-rock convention and the result is an album so diverse and expansive it’s almost impossible to label. Rather than restricting the Lips, the lack of a guitarist has liberated them to explore new songwriting territory. Occasionally hailed as the ‘ Pet Sounds of the 90s’, the most immediate aspect of The Soft Bulletin is how much more intricate it is in comparison to the band’s previous work. Which isn’t a reflection on Mercury Rev’s faults so much as it’s a testament to how incredible The Soft Bulletin is. It’s unfair but inevitable that Deserter’s Songs will spend the rest of its existence being undermined by a stronger album that came out eight months later. Deserter’s Songs, whilst great, isn’t able to reach the transcendent heights of its peaks as consistently as the Lips’ album and the tendency for the instrumentals to slip into Disney-esque cheese is more prevalent on the Mercury Rev record. That said, The Soft Bulletin is also the better album. Certainly, the studio collaboration plays a vital role in The Soft Bulletin’s sound and without the success of Deserter’s Songs perhaps there would’ve been less momentum for the Lips to ride on. In fact, Coyne goes so far as to claim that “ without Deserter’s Songs being so significant, The Soft Bulletin would probably have not been followed too much.” Lips frontman Wayne Coyne describes a symbiotic relationship between the two bands during the recording process, “ whatever instruments, whatever new gadgets… whichever band would get them, the next group into the studio would use them too”. Mercury Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue was a member of the Lips for a couple of albums and, more importantly, Deserter’s Songs was recorded in the same studio as The Soft Bulletin. ![]() The similarities with The Flaming Lips don’t stop there, however. Expanding into more melodic and baroque pop territory, this album propelled the previously obscure indie rockers to surprising success. Having gone through a similar journey to the Lips, Deserter’s Songs was a notable departure from Mercury Rev’s noisier past. The Soft Bulletin was preceded by the release of Deserter’s Songs, the fourth studio album by Mercury Rev, in 1998. For that, we had to wait for album number nine. Whilst certainly more experimental than their previous records, Zaireeka didn’t transform the Lips’ sound with any lasting impact. ![]() Beyond that gimmick, however, there isn’t much else to write home about. Divided up into four discs, the listener had to synchronise all of them to experience the album in full. Inspired by a series of ‘Parking Lot Experiments’, The Flaming Lips’ released their eighth studio album Zaireeka in 1997. Ronald Jones left the band after 1995’s Clouds Taste Metallic and instead of looking for another one, the Lips took the opportunity to expand their sound beyond the conventions of rock music. After seven albums of noise rock oddities, the band found themselves without a guitarist. The Soft Bulletin occupies an interesting place in the Lips’ history. Presenting life in all its beauty and heartbreak, with gorgeous melodies and lush instrumentation to match the richness of its themes, The Soft Bulletin remains the band’s crowning achievement. Twenty years ago, they achieved this balance to perfection. However, at their peak, The Flaming Lips were able to ground their existentialism in accessible idiosyncrasies. In recent years their personality has arguably become a little tacky and directionless, sounding more like a random quirky word generator than a band. Unlike, for example, some of the prog-rock bands of the ‘70s, whose big themes often got lost in dense mysticism, The Flaming Lips remain down-to-earth. The wonderful thing about The Flaming Lips is their ability to be profound without sounding pretentious. ![]() Album Review: The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
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