Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - Flaming Lips

This is my favourite album by the Flaming Lips. I particularly like the way the album's got an over-arching story, which revolves around (predictably) a young girl called Yoshimi being the hero of a war against some huge pink robots. Released in July 2002, Yoshimi is the 10th album released by the Flaming Lips since they formed in 1983. The entire album is in a kind of electronica/rock style, with thought-provoking lyrics throughout. Track listing, and my opinion of each song: 1. Fight Test: Great song, very uplifting, just a shame the first and last 10 seconds of the song don't really fit with the rest of it. 8/10 2. One More ...  Read the complete review

It's roughly 20yrs since The Flaming Lips formed, but it's only been in that last quarter that Oklahoma's The Flaming Lips have started getting the recognition they deserve, if also a bit extra. Like most modern fans, I first heard of the band via '99's 'The Soft Bulletin'; an album which made many music journalists wet their pants. I'd only read about them, read associations, and heard one or 2 songs, which I liked; but I never did get that album. Hearing 2/3 songs of their current album though made me buy it; and no doubt their existing fans will love it, and music journalists have excreted themselves this time. Though, I ...  Read the complete review

But before it does, some facts about The Flaming Lips. They have been around for 20 years or more, making them "far too old" for this rock business. Mainman Wayne Coyne has a very large head. He needs it for playing and singing on, and writing the lyrics for, CDs such as this and The Soft Bulletin, their 1999 effort, which is another classic (allegedly, theediscerning hasn't caught up with it yet.) Wayne also directs their videos. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is co-produced by Dave Fridmann, who is well known (ish) for making Mercury Rev sound so angelic and orchestral. The Flaming Lips live have been known to ...  Read the complete review

The last time a Flaming Lips album was unleashed upon the world it ended up gracing one of the top three slots in nearly every critic's end of year poll, quite an achievement for a band whose back catalogue is still unknown to many, though the chances are now that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will soon find itself nestled up beside The Soft Bulletin in many a CD collection. Yoshimi... continues on in much the same way as the Soft Bulletin, if that is possible for such a pioneering band as The Flaming Lips. The opening track Fight Test has the same uplifting spirit as Race for the Prize, and there is the same feeling that the band are located somewhere ...  Read the complete review