I can hear every word he sings which is pretty remarkable when you consider that it’s a rock recording - which typically has the vocals somewhat buried in the mix - and it is a live recording with a Symphony and a Choir! The first thing I noticed on this recording was how good singer Wayne Coyne’s vocals sound.
#Flaming lips soft bulletin vinyl full#
On The Soft Bulletin: Live at Red Rocks you hear not only The Flaming Lips with its guitars, synthesizers, multiple drummers and general madness but also a full 69-piece Symphony Orchestra and an 56-person choir! That’s a huge undertaking! That is no small task to pull off folks and kudos must go out to Producer David Fridman for pulling off this minor miracle… Now, I don’t know if this is a digital or analog recording but I suspect it is the former and that’s OK because they did a fine job creating a modern live rock recording in conjunction with a symphony orchestra. The performances are exemplary and most importantly the sound is really good, which is no small feat given the magnitude and scale of the performers on stage here. I’m happy to report that The Soft Bulletin: Live at Red Rocks was worth the wait. As it turned out, I ultimately gave up waiting and special ordered a copy! Given my travel schedule this past month of January, I’m just getting around to reviewing it now. This was perhaps due to the fact that there were reported problems with distribution across the country. When I first heard that The Flaming Lips were doing a concert at Red Rocks in Colorado with a symphony orchestra several years ago, the first thing I thought was: ‘gosh I hope they release this as a concert album!’ Late last year on Record Store Day/Black Friday that album was released but it was sort of rolled out with not quite the fanfare I expected to see. Seeking this one out as a chaser to another long sip on the Soft Bulletin vibe is the best way to experience it.Twitter Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsApp The Soft Bulletin still stands as a classic where the best of ’90s experimental rock and pop collided, and its companion piece does sit fairly comfortably in its long shadow. The Soft Bulletin Companion’s early versions of “Slow Motion”and “Little Hands” are also not too bad, and remind you of the band’s songwriting chops during the period, with Coyne directing the band on the rough mix of the latter track. In other corners of the release, a Lips Mix of The Soft Bulletin ’s “Buggin’” and an early mix of “The Spiderbite Song” both fall far short of the quality heard on the original Soft Bulletin classics. It’s seen new life this year during Record Store Day, and longtime fans of the band will take note of hearing rarities like the fuzzed, psychedelic rocker “The Captain,” which are a welcome sight on vinyl after years of being hard to find.Īlso, it’s nice to hear a couple stereo versions of tracks from the endlessly curious 1997 experimental release Zaireeka (which, infamously, was ideally played from four separate CDs blasted in unison from different car sound systems). as a promo-only CD to pair alongside The Soft Bulletin. There are odd experiments, melodic dead ends, plenty of outtakes, prototype mixes, and everything in between on this 13-song collection originally intended by the band’s manager and Warner Bros. It’s abundantly clear that The Soft Bulletin Companion is a compilation of curios for diehard fans of a monumental album from early in the band’s nearly 40 years of existence. Dubbed by a few bold critics at the time as the Pet Sounds of the ’90s, their ninth studio record started to unlock a whole new level of festival audience far beyond what came before for the psychedelic weirdos from the Sooner State.įrontman Wayne Coyne has often referred to rare Flaming Lips hits during past interviews as gifts from the “gods of music.” Concert staples such as “Do You Realize?” or the title track off 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots are moments when the gods bent down and tapped the band on the shoulder, said it was time, and rewarded the good work they had set up previously with the best tracks on The Soft Bulletin only three years before (“Race for the Prize” and “Waiting for a Superman”). Released in 1999, it was a moment when the group essentially started all over again with something wholly new as they reacted to the death of Wayne Coyne’s father, as well as other deaths of loved ones experienced by longtime guitarist and keyboardist Steven Drozd. The Flaming Lips ’ Soft Bulletin was a watershed moment for the Oklahoma City rock band.