I wish I could hear YBTPR again for the first time 😭 I heard it for the first time live 21 years ago when they opened for Beck. I was blown away. I haven’t been the same since. Just saw them play this whole album live again a few weeks ago in Austin.
Yoshimi is such a legendary album . And considering that it followed up their other legendary album "the soft bulletin", its makes it all the more impressive. The flaming lips truly pioneered a new sound and genre, and are STILL thriving off of the soft bulletin/yoshimi era.
From an article I found about the album. "The album’s most potently melancholic tear-jerker arrives in the form of ‘Do You Realise??’. As if finally unleashing a wave of suppressed sadness, the song began life as a response to the story of a Japanese fan who had died of a mysterious heart disease after travelling across the world to see them."
Wayne Coyne once told a great story about being at the 2002 Grammy awards and Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon was nominated for best rock instrumental. He said the presenter named all the nominees and as they said "And the winner is..." he could see Slash had already stood up and was at the end of his row by the time they said The Flaming Lips and Wayne said "I just thought to myself... Fuck you, Slash, AND your top hat!"
This was such a formative album for me; it was really great to be able to experience it for the first time again with you. Thanks for that! You may also enjoy The Soft Bulletin from them. Be well out there!❤
Saw The Flaming Lips live at Glastonbury '03, just before Radiohead headlined. Check their set out - and Radiohead's that follows - because they're both fucking beautiful. Still get the chills. Also, 'Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon' WON A FUCKING GRAMMY. Inject that into my veins all the time.
I saw them at Glastonbury 2000, they were amazing then too but my mate's girlfriend fainted halfway through so I missed the end of the set! Never forgotten that!
This was one of my favorite albums to trip to back in the day, good stuff bro. I’m ready for that SJ reaction video, hope you enjoyed it more than MPP 🍻
love this album and ive also always loved the associated artwork. its so pretty 😻 anyway soft bulletin is just as good (even better imo) so i definitely recommend listening to that as well if you want to hear more.
"This is peaceful. I feel like a little girl. Why'd I say that?" lmfao. Great reaction. This has been one of my favorite albums since the day it came out.
Yoooooooo! He’s the king for a reason! Also please check out the new Sprain album “The Lamb As Effigy” Also the most logical album after this one is “The Soft Bulletin” it’s the album before Yoshimi and it’s amazing
This record is so goooood, glad you got to it I recommend you a lot King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Probably the most prolific band atm, in 10 years they released 24 albums and they love to explore genres, every album is a different one. I think you might like Butterfly 3000 or any of the 3 albums that they released in october (yeah, they did) but probably the best one of those is Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (it was written recording their jamming sessions and picking up what they liked more, that is really cool), just remembered bc in that one there's a song called Iron Lung too haha. Really hope you get into them someday :)
Definitely second this as a huge gizz fan, although personally I wouldn’t recommend those albums first. Personally I think that nonagon infinity or I’m in your mind fuzz are better entry points
The robot theme came about because the band invited Yoshimi P-We into the studio to record some vocal samples, and they thought she sounded like she was battling robots, inspiring the story of the two title tracks. But there's not really an overall concept or plot to the album.
True, but I think a plot could be extrapolated from this. Would love the chance to make an action/drama cartoon with a similar level of maturity to something like Arcane (maybe not as serious all the time) using these songs as soundtracks in key scenes if I had the skills. I can already imagine the themes of robot nature vs human nature, love/heartbreak, living in the present, and awe at the vastness of space/the world. I can distinctly imagine a conflict between robots and humans due to mutual misunderstanding in a very sci-fi/video-gamey/anime influenced world.
Saw these legends at Voodoo Fest in Nola 2016 - first one post-Katrina. Others played and were great - Kings of Leon, Duran Duran etc - but the Lips blew everybody away. This album is a perfect futuristic dreamscape. PS: My Chemical Romance played right before the Lips on that particular stage and I caught the last half of their set. Hadn’t really heard of them much at that point - wasn’t my type of music 🤷♀️- but damn those boys put on a hell of a show. Respect ✊
Early Mercury Rev has a similar albeit more chaotic vibe. Their albums, Boces and Yerself is Steam are my recommendations if you like this sound and noise-rock/pop.
Some great underrated hits are “Zaireeka” or “7skies h3” the first album “zaireeka” is a 4 disk album, where you play all discs at the same time, to get the full picture, and the ladder song “7 skies h3” is a 24 hour song that they put out for holloween in 2013, there were 15 copies of the album made and they were put on usb sticks and stuck inside real human skills, the song is full fire all the way through, I think you could do it 👍 this band has alot of good stories like that.
A lot of recommendations on here already for The Soft Bulletin, which I think is their best album; however, I also really love the underrated At War With the Mystics.
what if................... idk (also i recommend checking out american football's debut, and also pinkerton by weezer, love you man, defo my fav music reviewer)
I encourage you to experience lsd and shrooms. I microdose every few days and do bigger trips like once a month. My advice is to use it as a spiritual tool but also have fun and of course have lots of great music to play. Love this album but would also definitely recommend listening to The Soft Bulletin as it is imo their best album. Also gotta recommend my recommendations. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern David Bowie - Blackstar
Suggestion: Afghan Whigs Gentlemen (or any of their albums) Oh, and I thought this Flaming Lips album was a one track wonder but perhaps I was wrong. 🤔
Thanks I discovered a new killer album. I agree with another commenter. If you aren't familiar with QOTSA catalogue please go through it. My fav album of all time is "Like Clockwork"
Your reviews are amazing! You deserve way more views. Reccomendation: I HIGHLY reccomend M83's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming". Very dreamy electronica album. You probably know the song "Midnight City" off of it.
In my opinion this album is an abomination. It’s existence is offensive to other recorded music. Fuck I’d rather listen to Billy Joel’s piano man. But if someone else loves this record that’s cool, you do you.
