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Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
by The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 84 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 76 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The Oklahoma band finally returns with a follow-up to perhaps their strongest effort to date, 1999's 'The Soft Bulletin.' Here, the Lips venture even more into electronic territory, working once again with producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev). Yoshimi of Japanese band The Boredoms guests on vocals on one track and lends her name to part of the album's title (the "Yoshimi" part, not the "Pink Robots" part).

LABEL: Warner Bros.
RELEASE DATE: 16 July 2002
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Alternative, 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
Dot Music
Incredibly, 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' is a record that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 'The Soft Bulletin', refining that album's themes and defiantly charging into unchartered musical territories. Another masterpiece.
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100
Uncut
Even by their standards, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is astonishing.... Plainly, this is music abnormally alive with possibilities. [Album of the Month, Aug 2002, p.96]
100
Splendid
A perfect synthesis of modern studio manipulation and old-time pop craftsmanship, shattering all notions of what pop music can, or for that matter, should be.
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90
All Music Guide
Funny, beautiful, and moving, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots finds the Flaming Lips continuing to grow and challenge themselves in not-so-obvious ways after delivering their obvious masterpiece.
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90
New Musical Express
'Yoshimi...' sets yet another benchmark.
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90
CDNow
After fifteen years of continually blossoming brilliance, the Flaming Lips can count themselves among the most essential American bands in rock history.
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90
Alternative Press
Smartly packaged pop that's as slick as Stereolab, but human enough--thanks to Coyne's earnestness and sincerity--to malfunction in all the right places. [Sep 2002, p.77]
90
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Endlessly listenable and almost invariably mesmerizing, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots piles on layers of production prowess without drowning out the beat of its human, humane heart.
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90
Ink Blot Magazine
The measured use of electronics recalls nothing so much as OK Computer, and in some ways Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots sounds like that album might have if Thom Yorke believed in God.
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90
Mojo
If Yoshimi.... lacks the sheer shock value of Bulletin's panoramic delirium, its peak moments are enough to make it one of 2002's most rewarding releases. [Album of the Month, Aug 2002, p.92]
84
Pitchfork
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is a bold and inventive work, brimming with ideas and sublime moments of brilliance. But it's also unfocused and top-heavy.
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83
Entertainment Weekly
Songs like "Fight Test" and "Do You Realize" have various tics--but they're so sweet-souled that such sins are easily forgiven. [19 July 2002, p.74]
80
Rolling Stone
Yoshimi isn't the end-to-end triumph that was 1999's The Soft Bulletin.... But the production is equally ambitious, with burbling electrobeats underpinning sci-fi orchestrations that sound like the brainchild of Esquivel and the Orb.
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80
Delusions of Adequacy
It almost seems like the Flaming Lips has regressed a little, structurally and rhythmically speaking.
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80
Playlouder
Anyone else tries this, it'll be like being force-fed Sunny Delight by a battalion of pastel-pashmina'd Pokemon on My Little Ponies. In the hands of The Flaming Lips, with their stellar inventiveness and inquisitive sweetness, it's just utterly noble.
Read Full Review
80
Billboard
As strange as it is wonderful.
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80
Q Magazine
This is one of those exquisitely rare records on which maturity and vitality are equally matched. [Aug 2002, p.127]
80
Dusted Magazine
The whole affair feels a little slighter, a little less important.
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80
Blender
A gently involving and moving album, Yoshimi could be the negative image of Radiohead's Kid A: the sound of a rock band using electronica to make music that's inclusive and warm instead of icy and aloof. [#8, p.114]
75
E! Online
Simply the Flaming Lips doing what they do best, which is being beautifully weird and loving every minute of it.
Read Full Review
70
Almost Cool
While the group has done a great job of incorporating even more digital tricks and unique sounds into the mix, they've somehow managed to create a slightly more sterile environment.
Read Full Review
70
CultureDose.net
Where The Soft Bulletin was an intricate assessment of rock's potential, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is merely a rough sketch of a new musical direction.
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70
PopMatters
Granted, the Lips can still be innovative, but for perhaps the first time in their storied career, their creativity feels familiar and predictable.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice
The lyrics are often corny and thin.
Read Full Review
60
Neumu.net
While appreciating Yoshimi for its merits poses little problem, actually enjoying it is more difficult.
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60
Magnet
Listening to Coyne retreat behind the faux-Power Rangers horror-movie shtick he's created here is puzzling and ultimately disappointing. [#55, p.73]
40
Austin Chronicle
Yoshimi has its moments, but it sounds like leftover brilliance from its older, better brother, padded out with filler to make a new album.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 76 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bob R gave it a10:
I actually like this much better than the Soft Bulletin.

Dr Jiberish gave it a2:
Completely overrated! Same with everything else in my music collection. I give it a 2 and everything else a 1.

Henry gave it a10:
Just an amazing album that I had ever heard. All the songs stick to the theme of the album: scientific and mystery. I must give my special appalause to the Flaming Lips. They create an outstanding and full of characterisitic Yoshimi whom I can feel her bavery and love from the song "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots pt 1". Thanks Flaming Lips for the great album.

Jon L gave it a10:
Sheds the symphonic sweep of The Soft Bulletin for dense, fluid electronica, while retaining the whimsical melancholy and thoughts on life, death, and humanity. The playfulness of the Lips doesn't detract from their more ruminative tracks, rather, it adds punch to the emotional impact and sheer beauty. As good as their previous album, and maybe the best album of the decade. Truly masterful.

Stephen I gave it a10:
Amazing, I believe this album to be so far as one of the greatest albums of the decade.

S.L. O'Robot gave it a6:
Overrated, overhyped and staggeringly underwhelming in the wake of the vastly superior "The Soft Bulletin." "Yoshimi," I suspect, garnered most of its raves from: 1) critics who missed the boat on "The Soft Bulletin," and wanted to appear to be in-the-know on the next record, or; 2) those ready to anoint FL as godhead in the afterglow of TSB. If you're new to the Lips and looking for a good starting point, skip this one and go straight to "The Soft Bulletin."

mr. hankey gave it a10:
Beautiful, Sonic and Underrated. This is what I think of the 2002 album by the Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The album is a message that cannot be determined but is only understood by the band and the twisted frontman Wayne Coyne. The album does not work out as well as the amazing 1999 release " The Soft Bulletin" but is still one of the best albums to come out since 2000. It is beautiful and the standout tracks seem to be "Fight Test" and "Do You Realize?" which stood out because of their catchy guitar riffs and amazing lyrics. If you should get an album by the Flaming Lips I would recommend The Soft Bulletin but if you are a longtime fan like myself then I would recommend this which proves to be the Lips at their tip top form.

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