The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (25th Anniversary - Indie Exclusive)

The Flaming Lips signed to Warner Brothers in 1992; part of a frenzied mass-signing of American indie bands by major-labels looking for the next Nirvana. By 1998, they had failed to deliver a worthy successor to their lone crossover hit “She Don’t Use Jelly” and were in danger of being dropped by Warners. Their previous effort, the bloated & grandiose 4-part multitrack full-length Zaireeka was nearly the last straw. Guitar virtuoso Ronald Jones had recently quit the band, and rather than try to replace him, the remaining band members (along with producer Dave Fridmann of Mercury Rev) instead decided to go a different direction, ditching the slacker rock formula and filling the void of guitars with dense layers of piano, synth, samples and drum machines. It’s the band’s most earnest and eye-watering effort to date, and the somber tone (the original working title was The Soft Bullet In) permeating tracks like “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate,” “The Spiderbite Song” and “Sleeping On The