{"id":27891,"date":"2024-08-05T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27891"},"modified":"2024-08-01T09:05:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T13:05:56","slug":"take-five-notable-tracks-from-the-flaming-lips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/05\/take-five-notable-tracks-from-the-flaming-lips\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Notable Tracks from the Flaming Lips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A modern-day psychedelic band from the unlikeliest place \u2013 Oklahoma \u2013 The Flaming Lips began as an outsider group with a small but dedicated cult following. They band broke through to the mainstream listening audience with a surprise hit single in 1993, but the Flaming Lips\u2019 greatest achievement \u2013 and its most creatively fertile era \u2013 commenced with the release of 1999\u2019s <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em>. Widely hailed as one of the best albums of the \u201890s, <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em> was a success with both listeners and critics. The group has released many albums since, building on the success of that record. Today the group features only one original member \u2013 idiosyncratic vocalist and front man Wayne Coyne \u2013 but the band\u2019s loyal and passionate following remains as strong as ever.<\/p>\n<p>This years marks the 25th anniversary of the release of <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em>. In observance of that milestone, here are five must-hear Flaming Lips tracks that span the group\u2019s 38-year-plus history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShe Don\u2019t Use Jelly\u201d from <em>Transmissions from the Satellite Heart<\/em> (1993)<\/strong><br \/>\nUp to this point, Oklahoma\u2019s finest hadn\u2019t found mainstream success with their music, and there was little reason to think that would change. But then this tune with distinctly weird and wacky lyrics was selected for inclusion on episodes of two then-popular TV series: <em>Beavis and Butthead<\/em> and <em>Beverly Hills, 90210<\/em>. Released as as single, \u201cShe Don\u2019t Use Jelly\u201d reached #9 on the U.S. alternative chart, the only time that a Flaming Lips song has charted in the U.S. (In England, however, the band has scored no less than five Top 40 singles.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cvfxKbpoxRE?si=9S1nTgvR1zHTDj-t\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBad Days\u201d from <em>Clouds Taste Metallic<\/em> (1996)<\/strong><br \/>\nCombining sentimentality, humor and quirkiness, \u201cBad Days\u201d displayed a sunny optimism amid the understanding that the world is complicated, often unhappy place. The song\u2019s video waded into \u201870s nostalgia with its use of vintage bicycles. At this point The Flaming Lips hadn\u2019t cultivated the wide audience they\u2019d soon enjoy, so many people only belatedly discovered this track when it was included on a 2005 video compilation, <em>VOID<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4YQh_7LYg-g?si=NryZyCCusctJYDOW\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRace for the Prize\u201d from <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em> (1999)<\/strong><br \/>\nWorking with co-producer David Fridmann, the Flips crafted their finest work to date (and arguably the best album of their career). <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em> was a near-seamless blend of weirdness and melody, distilling the best of \u201890s musical trends into a work that built on \u201860 psychedelia while still sounding fresh and new. Steven Drozd\u2019s role as the group\u2019s sonic architect reached new heights. The heart-rending story at the core of \u201cRace for the Prize\u201d struck a chord with listeners, too.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bs56ygZplQA?si=Bxj3K9mndIO1gOHa\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFight Test\u201d from <em>Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots<\/em> (2003)<\/strong><br \/>\nA concept album of sorts, <em>Yoshimi<\/em> found Coyne, Drozd and their band mates bending the Flaming Lips\u2019 trademark sound toward an even more ambitious goal. But as always, it wouldn\u2019t be necessary to fully comprehend the story line (such as it was) to enjoy the oddball yet irresistible melodies at the heart of their songs. \u201cFight Test\u201d is one of many highlights on <em>Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fye1XtXQn9s?si=xC58EA9ECC5EJ4IJ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Yeah Yeah Yeah Song\u201d from <em>At War with the Mystics<\/em> (2006)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe dense layering of Flaming Lips songs often means that the group\u2019s catchy melodies aren\u2019t always immediate; they can take a few spins to reveal themselves. But \u201cThe Yeah Yeah Yeah Song\u201d is an exception to that rule; its lyrics encourage singalong, albeit in that wobbly, barely-in-tune style so closely associated with Wayne Coyne.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kjrUOlK2714?si=I8HGxd96m9XWkK4u\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A modern-day psychedelic band from the unlikeliest place \u2013 Oklahoma \u2013 The Flaming Lips began as an outsider group with a small but dedicated cult following. They band broke through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,57,62],"tags":[834],"class_list":["post-27891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-psych","category-rawk","tag-flaming-lips","cat-27-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27892,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27891\/revisions\/27892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}