The Flaming Lips

The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros.)
by Jon Sarre

I’ll side with Wayne Coyne’s legion of fawning fans and grant him his artiste status, but that still doesn’t mean this new Flaming Lips stab at brave new pop doesn’t do anything but alternately bore and irritate me. Years back when they ditched their pale attempts at psychedelia to become more than just another dumb garage band (which was the only time I sorta liked ’em), they captured that important core audience of people who also count the days ’til the next Guided By Voices record. That constituency, tho’ small, apparently includes 99% of “underground” rock journalists, thus an essentially unworkable novelty concept like releasing a four CD set designed to be played simultaneously is hailed as some kinda major fuckin’ event. Same goes, I’m sure, for The Soft Bulletin, an album that sounds like Jad Fair covering the Carpenters set to disco thump and roller rink strings. Yet another example of why music sucks right now.