[AllHandsOnTheBigOne]

Alright... now I love the Flaming Lips and all, but I think i'm one of the few people on this planet who thinks The Soft Bulletin is one of their lamest albums, and that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pretty much sucks, save for three or four moderately good tunes. I think the spazzy drugged-out shoegaze rock they did in the early years when they were huffing inhalants off eachother's testicles is a thousand times better than this glossed over ipod-era indie pop that they're doing now. In a Priest Driven Ambulance, and the rest of the shit on the compilation The Day They Shot a Hole in the Jesus Egg is fucking kill, as is pretty much everything they put out prior to 1993. Even Transmissions From the Satellite Heart makes their current work look pretty tepid.

They are certainly making decent pop music now... but it just doesn't really fit my personal image of the Lips. Somewhere along the line Wayne Coyne stopped listening to the Butthole Surfers and decided he wanted to be Brian Wilson. This is all well and good, and Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin definitely meet those aspirations with their dreamy OK Computer-Meets-Sesame-Street pop tunes, but i for one miss the dirge.