![]() From that anecdote, Coyne and multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd envisioned American Head as a work of speculative fiction, reimagining the Lips as the sort of drugged-out local Oklahoman rock band that might’ve hung out and jammed with a pre-fame Petty while he was passing through town.Īs it turns out, that mythical ‘70s scenario is really just a roundabout way of getting the Lips back to where they were in the ‘90s. After revisiting the Tom Petty documentary Runnin’ Down A Dream following the rock legend’s 2017 death, Lips ringleader Wayne Coyne became fixated with the story of Petty’s pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch, with whom Petty spent time in Tulsa in the early-’70s en route to L.A. Rhythmic and piano-laden, it's heavenly in both its conception and execution.In sharp contrast to the Lips’ recent adventures in fairytale fantasias, American Head finds its inspiration in an arcane piece of Oklahoma musical lore. NME (Magazine) (5/8/99, p.38) - 9 out of 10 - ".a joyous, celestial celebration of sound. Mojo (Publisher) (7/99, p.97) - ".a stately parade of sound.Very curious, very gripping, very fine." Mojo (Publisher) (1/00, p.31) - Ranked #6 in Mojo Magazine's "Best of 1999." Mojo (Publisher) (p.66) - Ranked #6 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" - "plifting, orchestral swell and joyful psych experiments." Melody Maker (5/15/99, p.36) - 4 stars (out of 5) - ".THE SOFT BULLETIN is a smart, snappy record full of great tunes." "ĬMJ (6/28/99, p.5) - ".may be the Lips' most challenging, yet still wonderfully exaggerated and far-reaching to date.The group's spaced-out moments, which came off as compelling little accidents in the past, are now more lucid, moody and colorful than ever." Spin (7/99, pp.126-7) - 9 (out of 10) - ".THE SOFT BULLETIN may be the most extraordinary rock record you'll hear all year.a symphonic work of fully realized cosmic pop, full of surging sweeping melodicism and expansive, heart tugging tunes."Įntertainment Weekly (7/9/99, p.78) - ".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." - Rating: A THE SOFT BULLETIN raises such pre-millennial realist/fantasy notions in the midst of a 90s "Tomorrow Never Knows," and in the process setting a high bar for the last great rock-era records of the 20th century. Songs like "Superman," "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" and a half-dozen others, hint at the hopelessness of life's outcome while maintaining a sense of faith (a common Lips theme). The music adds a context of grandeur to Coyne's lyrics of Zen and the cosmic joke. Long-time producer and Mercury Rev studio savant Dave Fridmann helps with the completion of a Spectorian sonic canvas, full of epic gestures (glorious sweeping strings arrangements) and brilliant details (well-placed thematic samples).Obviously, the experience greatly influenced the band's direction, because on THE SOFT BULLETIN the Lips again scrap the guitar-bass-drum rock standard, sculpting instead a huge hi-fi record akin to a post-modern PET SOUNDS with the vision of a humanist OK COMPUTER. With their multi-disc opus ZAIREEKA (four CDs meant to be played simultaneously on four different players), the Flaming Lips radically expanded the scope of their melancholy psychedelia, as pop tunes became modernist soundscapes, part-Pink Floyd, part-John Cage.The Flaming Lips: Steven Drozd (vocals, guitar, drums) Michael Ivins (vocals, guitars, bass guitar) Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars).
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