On the cusp of releasing their 13th studio album (with scores of other releases under their belt), there‰’s no question that the Flaming Lips are music royalty. They have achieved this by decades of being prolific, eccentric, exciting, challenging, controversial and, occasionally, absolutely beautiful. Their high point in this last category came in 1999, following a run of progressively more stargazing noise pop albums. In a year when Britney, ‰N Sync and Ricky Martin dominated the charts, the Lips released an album that knocked the indie music world off its feet and headlong into the far stretches of the universe. This album, The Soft Bulletin, is the perfect pick for this week‰’s track by track, 13 songs and 54 minutes of the sublime, one of the most chill-inducing albums ever made.

1.“Race For The Prize”

With a massive drum fill and swirling glissando, the album explodes into motion with “Race for the Prize.‰” Singer Wayne Coyne spins a doomsday tale about scientists competing for a panacea at the risk of their own deaths. His whimsical vocals ride over an ocean of synths, orchestration, guitar, harp, sub bass and multitracked “oohs.‰” The wordless chorus steals the song with an aching starburst of synthesized strings and, once again, those giant drums.

2.“A Spoonful Weighs A Ton

This song moves back and forth between a Pet Sounds-thick atmosphere of sweeping strings and
Coyne‰’s vocal straining and a full-on assault of drums, fuzzy synth bass and stereo-panned guitar
chords that sound like waves crashing on cliffs.

3.“The Spark That Bled”

Sliding between two ringing guitar chords, Coyne sings backed by not only strings and choral
backing vocals but also by an array of brass. The song then picks up with an orchestral march and an uplifting refrain (“I stood up and I said hell yeah yeah yeah‰Û) with more sunshine guitars. Later, a folky, upbeat guitar and drumbeat dance around Coyne‰’s sad lyrics before a dramatic pause that slides gorgeously back into the opening chords.

4.“The Spiderbite Song”

An atmosphere of nursery-rhyme piano and swirling drums accompanies this ballad that was
written by Coyne for troubled bandmate Steven Drozd. Coyne‰’s sweet vocal melody expresses
the two‰’s friendship with heartbreakingly honest lyrics. Snatches of orchestral samples float
around the simple piano orchestration, and the final verse matches a floating arrangement to
lyrics about love and loss, human thoughts floating in endless musical space.

5.“Buggin‰’”

After such a poignant song, “Buggin‰’‰” is one of the album‰’s goofiest and most whimsical tracks. When Coyne sings about the bugs of summertime and early summer love, the band pounds the honey-
sweet number into your brain, accompanied by appropriately buzzing synths and warped backing
vocals.

6.“What Is The Light?”

The verse of this song is the sparsest spot on the album, based on a simple, pumping kick
drum and echoed piano chords. The chorus, however, rises toward the topical heavens, a
glittering nebula of organ, tremolo-d guitar and booming bass. Its couplet, “looking into space,
it surrounds you/love is the place that you‰’re drawn to,‰” sums up the brilliance of Coyne‰’s
songwriting and the mission statement of the entire album in an unbeatably catchy melody.

7.“The Observer”

The kick pulse continues into the album‰’s first instrumental track. A minimalistic guitar motif
enters over the beat, with new layers added every time through. The song moves like a classical
piece, from lone guitar to backing horns, to a contemplative string bridge and into a calm but
overpowering finale.

8.“Waitin‰’ For A Superman”

One of the simpler pop songs on the album, “Waitin‰’ For A Superman‰” sings of a populace
losing the strength to deal with the heaviness of existence. As Coyne sadly tells them that even
Superman couldn‰’t deal with the load, karma police pianos and a punchy groove keep their heads
bobbing through it.

9.“Suddenly Everything Has Changed”

This song quickly moves from a bass-dominated verse groove to a dramatic orchestral interlude
that rings of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and Radiohead all at once. The multiplicity
of different instruments playing different parts on this song is mindblowing, almost impressive
enough to distract you from the vaguely ominous lyrics, but not quite.

10.“The Gash”

This song has the most over-the-top arrangement on the album. Over a shuffling drum march and plunking pianos, an entire choir sings the lyrics to a soldier who has given up not because of injury but existential doubt. In the chorus, Coyne voices the despairing soldier before the choir returns to reassure him that his company (and race?) battles on. Maybe it‰’s the excessive vocals, but this is also the most empowering song on the album.

11.“Slow Motion”

Uncompromisingly uplifting, “Slow Motion‰” grooves in a very electronic fashion, with a head-
nodding sampled beat and sparse, booming bass. The atmosphere and melody are unbeatable and
Coyne‰’s lines about the world moving in slow motion describe the single most inviting trip ever
sung about.

12.“Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”

On an album of amazing songs, incomparable atmosphere and existentially wracking lyrics,
“Feeling Yourself Disintegrate‰” is the crowning achievement in all categories. Its opening verses
tackle the relationship with love and death that defines us all in the universe, a spotless set of lines unequalled in the existential space rock category (even by all the titans that this album has drawn comparison to). These verses would be enough to cement the song as an all-time classic, but the chorus, a repetition of the title phrase, soars in portions of the heavens that very few musicians could ever even dream to reach. The accompaniment so lush on the rest of the album coheres here into a smooth, gliding atmosphere of bliss.

13.“Sleeping On The Roof”

The band sinks down from Valhalla into a suburban summer night for this closing song, the
second and final instrumental. No doubt the searching lyrics of this album were conceived in
many nights of lying on the roof, looking up; their sentiments have been echoed in the thoughts
of thousands of suburban children doing the same thing. This song is the perfect soundtrack. Its
lush, cricket-filled night atmosphere surrounds the listener, as galaxies, quasars and nebulas pass overhead in glorious waves.