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The Soft Bulletin
by The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 85 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.3 out of 10
based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 41 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The Dave Fridmann-produced 'Soft Bulletin' is considered by many fans and critics to be the band's finest album, and found its way onto quite a few Best of 1999 lists.

LABEL: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: 22 June 1999
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Indie, Rock

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Ink Blot Magazine
Perhaps the most important album of the decade.
Read Full Review
100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
An impossibly multi-tracked masterwork of excess, abrasion, and indefinable beauty.
Read Full Review
100
Entertainment Weekly
A vertiginous rainbow swirl that crams so many ideas into so many tight spaces that each track is like a perfectly rendered Joseph Cornell box.
Read Full Review
100
Pitchfork
This is one of those albums people are going to obsess over for many years to come.
Read Full Review
100
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Soft Bulletin provides an exquisite soundtrack to have blasting in the car at night.
Read Full Review
91
E! Online
Combines Beach Boys harmonies, Pink Floyd-influenced orchestral rock and the lonely-heart vocal style of such '70s icons as Big Star and Neil Young.
Read Full Review
90
CDNow
The group's most gorgeously crafted album ever.
Read Full Review
90
New Musical Express
A joyous, celestial celebration of sound.
Read Full Review
90
Amazon.com
The Flaming Lips' particular and peculiar genius comes to full fruition on the stupendous The Soft Bulletin.
Read Full Review
90
All Music Guide
Not just the best album of 1999, The Soft Bulletin might be the best record of the entire decade.
Read Full Review
90
Hot Press
The Flaming Lips could've been forgiven for feeling usurped when their sister ship Mercury Rev steamed away with the garlands for Deserter's Songs last December, but in truth, both collectives are in competition with no-one but themselves and the gods.
Read Full Review
85
Nude As The News
One of the Flaming Lips' most listenable records and another step up the ladder toward pop perfection.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice
The Lips may have been inspired by the easy-listening craze, but the seeker's quality within their music tugs against that style's instinctive cheapening of sentiment.
Read Full Review
80
BBC collective
Upon starting Soft Bulletin--you’re instantly whisked off into the universe the Flaming Lips have created. The musical journey that ensues is nothing short of imaginary genius--simple as.
Read Full Review
80
Delusions of Adequacy
As if the Lips' perfect mix of pop and psychedelia wasn't enough, they write songs that are not only excellent but distinct as well.
Read Full Review
80
Almost Cool
A very good slice of experimental pop.
Read Full Review
80
Launch.com
The Soft Bulletin is sparse and enchanted, like the band has awoken from a long dream spent spinning in outer space.
Read Full Review
70
Sonicnet
A trip into the prettiest altered states the Lips have yet kissed.
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle
The Soft Bulletin posts several clunkers, a few throwbacks, yet manages to it finds its way into some genuinely new territory, and in its wake the Flaming Lips might just be poised to make a masterpiece.
Read Full Review
60
Rolling Stone
Another baffling, winning, neopsychedelic recording.
Read Full Review
40
Q Magazine
The Soft Bulletin echoes the oft-mimiced Smiley Smile by The Beach Boys, with its psychedelic wobbliness, songs-within-songs and airy termperament.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sam S gave it a5:
Much loved by people whose judgment I respect. But it doesn't quite do it for me. I came to it after Yoshimi -- which I love in the extreme -- and this sounds flabby and maudlin by comparison.

I Shonaman gave it a9:
This is one of the best - most returned to albums I own. To only stand there and here the sound of Wayne's voice and dismiss it - is not embracing the Everyman appeal of Wayne's delivery. You don't need to be technically proficient to express. I find the lyrics to be imaginative, yet anchored in a realism based on reactions to loss and uncertainty. The delivery (vocal & instrumentation) only adds to the lyrical themes. Everything here is by design.

Tom B. gave it a10:
This album is the reason I believe in love.

sidewinder572 gave it a10:
Depending on how you look at it this is either the last masterpiece of the 20th century or the first masterpiece of the 21st century. However you look at it this is The Flaming Lips finest hour and at this moment one of the 5 greatest albums I've ever heard.

Paul D gave it a10:
The best record since the White Album, Pet Sounds, Exile, Buddy Holly's Greatest and you get the message. Freakin' beautiful melodies and arrangements, and Wayne's lyrics are the most insanely honest ever written. I liked the Lips beforehand, but this is by far their masterpiece. If this were the 60s, they would be the most popular thing out. too bad the superstars now come from a television show.

Gonzalo D gave it a10:
Subliminal.. Best album of the flaming, best album of 1999, and one of the 5 best albums of the entire decade!

Joseph B gave it a9:
The Soft Bulletine is the yin to the Clouds Taste Metallic yang. It pushes pop to its outer limits as well as anything that comes before it.

Read more user comments...

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