And the survey says....? CLASSIC.

The actual music on this is great, if an aquired taste: it is quite melacholy and more than a bit hippy, in a cute way. The mixing though -- while probably intentional, I don't like it. The drums cymbals are *way* too harsh and overdriven. I guess that's just noise pop, but I kinda wished this music had a slicker sound, like the followup Yoshimi...

Pretty, good, but rarely better than "pretty good". In my opinion the songs are good and the production is fantastic, making the songs better...a very contemporary album. I won't call it a ten because it's definitely not for everybody. Though it is a better album than Yoshimi, it's too complex to achieve the universal appeal of songs like "Fight Test" or "Yoshimi...Pt. 1" You should buy both.… Expand

Great music, but the vocals.....AWFUL! I have never ever heard a singer so out of tune, reaching for notes which are obviously out of his range. He needs vocal lessons real bad!

This is the best and most breathtakingly beautiful pop album of the nineties, period.

Honestly, after hearing (and loving) Yohimi Battles the Pink Robots I was somewhat dissappointed with this album. Don't get me wrong, it's still great, but I just thought it severely paled in comparisson. For one, it's pretty front loaded. (The Spark That Bled being in my opinion the cd's best.) and after What Is the Light? the tracks just seem to grow old, listening to his voice send out the same emotions one song after another, still good, just sorta boring. And for one final thing, did we really need a waitin' for a Superman remix? The orginal wasn't that good in the first place...But with all my complaints, after comparing it to the kind of garbage the average person listens to now, it's a masterpiece. So i give it an even 8. Ah well.… Expand

Not many albums can suck you in and control your emotions like the Soft Bulliton. Don't over look this album for not being as immediately accessible as any other release by the Flaming Lips.

When I think of the word "psychedelic" this is where my mind goes. I don't think I've heard sounds like this anywhere else in my life, and I may never hear them anyplace ever again. Hands down my favorite record. On a side note, "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" breaks my heart every time I hear it. One of the most achingly beautiful songs (ever?)

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.

This is an increadible sonically astounding album.

Epic. The gold standard to the modern rock opera of life, love and death.

Do not believe the hype about "Yoshimi," and that it is somehow a superior record -- utter nonsense, that. While "Yoshimi" may outstrip the entire collected works of most all of your favorite bands, it cannot remotely compare to "Soft Bulletin," which is perhaps the finest album of the last 15 years.

I had a question. How can AMG call this the album of the decade and only give it 4.5 stars? Not only that but in their website they end up calling Transmission... their best album. That's odd! Great record though

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.… Expand

This album is the reason I believe in love.

I love it. ...it's gorgeous and radical at the same time.

Stunning, evocative, enigmatic, perfect

what can i say? i never thought music would get any better than björk's homogenic, and then the flaming lips posted the soft bulletin, and i've never been the same since. only a handful of albums can lay claim to being truly life-changing -- this is one of those albums.

Fantastic listen.

A glorious slab of symphonic meditation. Coyne & Co. have created a beautiful, wholly original cross between Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds-era and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Even the seemingly throwaway tracks have something to offer. If there is any justice in the fickle landscape of pop culture, The Soft Bulletin will be considered a true classic years from now.

easily the best album of the 90s

Incredible.

Stunning

Pretty much the best thing I have ever heard - easily my favorite album of all time.

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.

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.… Expand

Best album of 1999. Period. A "Revolver" for the 90's...

Oh My God is tis cd good or wut! I've never heard anything as good as tis. TIS IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Seriously over-rated.not as good as some of their earlier albums.Waiting for Superman is the only great track.

a masterpiece.

Tightening up the epic sonic implications of their last two albums with beautiful melodies, experimentation and moving lyrics that are both personal and universal, The Soft Bulletin is The Flaming Lips' ultimate artistic statement and the last true alternative rock album. Gets far less accolades from the general public than it deserves, and didn't even chart despite being quite costly, but it will influence many bands in the long run and should hold up very well as The Flaming Lips dip into middle age and the later part of their careers.… Expand

This album has become my music base. I will always be able to come back to it. You need this album in your life.

Subliminal.. Best album of the flaming, best album of 1999, and one of the 5 best albums of the entire decade!

oh.... my..... god.... this is truly great. one of the best things i've heard ever. the cohesiveness. the production. the dynamics. just awesome.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots may have been a bit more out there and mabe even more creative, but the Soft Bulletin is by no means a lesser album. A beautiful record that just keeps getting better.

Its absoloutley amazing, as much as i love clouds taste metallic and their other albums this.is.their.best. GO AND BUY IT, it will make you want explode because you cant contain how seriously amazng this album is.ONE of THE best albums of the 90's and 20 years. up there with pinkerton,check your head and loveless guys

HOLY CRAP! WHAT AN ALBUM! Words cannot describe how awesome this album really is. Never heard of The Flaming Lips, start here and you too will realize their musical capabilities. One of the best albums of all time.

The Soft Bulletin is an example of an album where you just can't listen to one track off of it to truly appreciate. It's an album to be experienced in it's entirety; right from it's opening track (the majestic 'Race For The Prize") to it's closer ("Buggin'", the album's only love song). Sure, they all sound fantastic on their own, but it's just all the more amazing when everything's compressed together. If you can manage that (which, really, shouldn't be hard), you're in for a treat. Technically, it's an alternative rock album, but it feels like so much more. There's a lovable pop appeal that makes you love it the instant you hear it, along with an odd, experimental appeal as well that may turn it away from mainstream listeners, but ultimately, the two join together to create a truly wonderful style that will keep you astounded for days, maybe weeks, on end. More than anything, however, its how maximalist the music sounds that gives it such a jolt of grandiose energy. A seemingly infinite amount of instruments are in the mix-up, and thankfully, none of the tracks sounds the same. If the lyrics were as daring as the music, it would seem as if the band is taking itself too seriously and trying too hard, but the result is quite the opposite actually: Coyne keeps his lyrics simple and straightforward, which adds to the albums power. A masterpiece like this would've been almost to create perfectly, but the band somehow manage to create one of the decades most perfectly consistent records. Some of the highlights include the prog-styled epic "The Spark That Bled", the gorgeous "Waitin' For A Superman", and "Slow Motion", which includes the albums loveliest simile ("and I'm feeling like a float/In a Macy's Day Parade"). But they're all nothing compared to "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate", which manages to create a tune over Coyne making a studdering Bap, BapBapBab-like melody. By the time it goes away, you wont really notice, because you'd be too enthralled by the track to really notice even anything. In fact, it's pretty hard to notice anything the whole album; it's so damn hypnotic, you'll be shocked someone was crazy enough to make this album. But there was. And Bam, you've been mind-blown again. Damn, these guys are good at that. 10 out of 10.… Expand

Apart from having an overarching technical nous,the things that have propelled this album to legendary status among the cognicenti are it's warmth and compassion.This sounds very big, the polish does not detract from the songs, it would be hard to find too many better albums that were released back in 1999 ,a monumentally slack year in music.