Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Music for vegans who vape

Another great surprise that expelled any/all preconceived notions I had upon seeing today's entry. Apparently (obviously) I know/knew absolutely nothing about The Flaming Lips, but this was/is immediately right in my wheelhouse. Maybe a concept album....sign me up. Dreamy - melodic - mysterious - gorgeous - electronic loops mixed with organic elements - just great music which is simultaneously accessible yet not predictable. How have I missed this album all these years? I'm looking forward to repeat listens of this in headphones. I wonder if at some point I end up viewing this as a five.....this is awesome. ...screw it. 5 stars for an album I'd never heard of 24 hrs ago 9/10 5 stars.

One of my favourite albums, by one of my favourite artists, of all time. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is brilliant and life affirming on many different levels. Individually, each track is excellent, but collectively they add up to a single piece that is even greater than its individual parts. It's accessible and catchy, yet a bit weird and experimental. It manages to combine being a sci-fi semi-concept album about pink robots and a vitamin-popping girl, with universal truths and philosophies that go straight to the heart of the uncertainty and unknowingness of life and our insignificance in the universe: "I don't know how a man decides what is right for his own life, it's all a mystery" (Fight Test), "The universe will have its way, too powerful to master" (In the Morning of the Magicians). At the end it helpfully provides the the answer of what to do about these overwhelming questions: "Instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know you realize that life goes fast, it's hard to make the good things last" (Do You Realize??). I.e. Sadness is inevitable, don't worry about the big things that we can't control. Be grateful for your life, enjoy it, and share it with others. That message, along with the journey to get there, is the main reason I love this very special album. Rating: 5/5 Playlist track: Do You Realize?? Date listened: 28/06/22

Yesssssss.... This is hands down one of my all-time favorites. A kitschy, fuzzy, psychedelic odyssey in the form of a sci-fi anime rock opera. Every song is cinematic, melodious, and fun. Covering topics like sentient robots and vitamin-eating Japanese schoolgirls.

Too slow and lifeless for me, literally brings my mood down. Better than Radiohead though.

Yoshimi is the sequel to The Soft Bulletin, except it's also a loosely organized allegorical concept album about the struggle of humanity to extricate itself from the technological disaster it's created, but lyricist Wayne Coyne concentrates on the human costs involved. I'm a sucker for these kinds of themes to begin with, but the Lips do something unique with it. Their lyrics are goofy, heartfelt, incisive, and utterly humane, which couldn't be more endearing. Musically, the Lips write fairly simple pop songs with pretty melodies, but they've come up with arrangements that complement and deepen their lyrical content beautifully. They adroitly mix warm analog guitars with digital drums, orchestral flourishes, blatantly artificial and sometimes silly synth patches, augmented with studio trickery and faux-documentary excerpts, all grounded by Wayne Coyne's tremulous, wistful voice. Numerous psychedelic touches reveal The Lips' devotion to Pink Floyd, but they sound nothing like them, really. Are there weak spots? Yes, but they are hard to find. I find Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part II musically uninteresting and just plain silly. There is a preponderance of ballads. Nothing really rocks hard. But these are minor complaints. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a very strong album and well worth your time. 4 stars out of 5.

Mostly fine apart from the plagiarism

There are definite highlights, but the lack of variation in the synths means the whole album washes together into 40 minutes of monotony.

20 years ago, I probably would have written the most hyperbolic review for this record, likely proclaiming it one of the greatest records ever released, a true milestone achievement in human history, etc, etc, ad nauseam. It was an easy 5 for me and if you were in central New Jersey for a week in the back half of 2002, you probably would’ve seen me wearing the tan Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots comic strip t-shirt that I got when I saw them the month after this record was released. Man, I fucking loved this band. Over the years I’ve soured on them for a number of reasons, but mostly it’s just because I’ve changed and this record in particular is one that I associate with a not-so-great time in my life. It’s funny how that happens, isn’t it? Music is very powerful in that it’ll make you think about things you haven’t thought of in decades, temporarily reopening old wounds or re-igniting old flames - occasionally, it does both simultaneously, which is an especially shitty feeling, for sure. So yeah, I don’t really come back to this one because of that. …but enough sentimentalism. The other reason I don’t come back to this record very often is that honestly, I don’t think it’s that great as a whole. Somewhere around or after “Are You a Hypnotist?”, I usually start checking out. …and, Jesus Christ, if I never hear “Do You Realize?” again, I’d be so cool with that. These are words that, in the early aughts, I never thought I’d type out. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the Flaming Lips, but the three albums that precede this one, (Clouds Taste Metallic, Zaireeka and The Soft Bulletin) are the band’s high-water mark for me - I don’t think they topped those records before or since. The Flaming Lips were untouchable for those few years. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, just by virtue of following those classics, is mostly in the same league and shares some similarities with The Soft Bulletin, but it’s where the cracks begin to show, in my opinion. I guess what I’m getting at is, it’s not the Flaming Lips record with an orange cover I’d put on this list…Clouds Taste Metallic is the one you need to hear before you die. God, that album is amazing.

This album is a masterwork of an end-to-end experience. Every song is meticuously layered and arranged, creating an expansive and enveloping sound. I think "Fight Test", "Are You a Hypnotist??" and "In the Morning of the Magicians" are good examples of this. But breaking up the album and considering it song by song, undermines the value of the ablum, which is at it's highest as a whole. Although the creators have insisted this is not a concept album, there is a unifying feel and an arch to that I continuously enjoy experiencing end-to-end.

A modern classic. The Flaming Lips take an unusual storyline (really only apparent in the first few songs) and explore themes of mortality and love. The music is dreamlike and uses both analog and digital instrumentation to create a lush backdrop.

I loved this album, although I knew about The Flaming Lips I've never listened to them. This album specifically has a lot of experimental electronic and progressive sounds but just enough to be a pleasant experience

It started off ok, and it has a few songs in there that stand out a bit, but I don't really like his vocals, and plenty of the album just comes across as a bit soft and wanky.

Boring hipster music

Great album, was already in my favourites list. Cohesive, tells a story without being too blatant, and I love the mix of folky warble with some electronics influence.

Amazing album, so rich and weird. The melodrama and soaring instrumentals are fantastic.

An incredibly unique and pleasurable listening experience.

It's super vibey, and I love it. The lyrics/voice are engaging and fit extremely well with the backing track. I especially liked the keyboard in the songs it was featured in, but each instrument had it's time in spotlight. In addition, no instrument overpowered another. This is an album that I could put in the background while I'm just thinking as it's pretty relaxing. Favorite track: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1

A weird experience, definitely. It mixes in stuff that sounds like early-2000s pop with some alternative music things that I can now see that have even affected some other more modern music that I've heard. The whole album works wonderfully together and it has a solid musical theme throughout, but no one specific song jumps out to me as outstanding. A good listen, which I'd recommend to _most_ people, though.

The Flaming Lips play it safe, too safe. It feels like their Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is them outsourcing a record to a group of untalented and unmotivated born-again Christians. The Flaming Lips gave these Christians the assignment to create an uninspired piece of dream pop, without any edge, with the most dumbed-down cartoonish lyrics, and extremely awkwardly awful sounding vocal effects. I am happy to report that these Christians succeeded in creating one of the dumbest pieces of Rock/Dream-Pop that I have ever listened to. Their only mistake was the okayish Do You Realize, which is way too catchy for my taste. Well done, 1/5.

This album is one that holds an incredibly special place to me. It’s been one of my absolute favorites of all time for a while now, I’ve seen it performed in full live, and it was my introduction to the Flaming Lips, who are now one of my all time favorite bands and whose discography I could give you my full detailed thoughts on for hours on end. I very rarely consider any album to be perfect, but this is one of the few that I would say are practically on that level. Right now more than ever, a relisten to this album was what I needed. With how my mind and life has been lately, the message of this album, enjoying the present instead of fearing the future, is one that hit harder than ever. I will always love this album with all my heart.

killer album art. i loved this, it was fun in concept & catchy (even the instrumentals) & just the right amount of upbeat + melancholy

This is not a record, it's a state of mind. Perfect soundtrack for sunny Sunday mornings, it's the pinnacle where all what is the Lips -experimentation, melodies, sonic creativity- reaches its maximum height. Even better than 'The Soft Bulletin', they had never been that good, never were again

Fun!

This is the first album that I've been suggested that I'm intimately familiar with. There a several titanic songs on this album, including Fight Test, Yoshimi part 1, and Do You Realize. In between these songs is a psychedelic soundscape that guides you dreamily through the album. The instrumentals on this album are incredible. No two songs sound alike, and yet the album has a cohesive feel. 5/5

Strange and wonderful alternative music that is everything you would expect from the band. A lovely complementary piece to the Soft Bulletin.

Musical theatre like sometimes.

Do You Realize that this is a great album? I feel like I'm floating through space. It's a nice album to chill out and maybe bob your head here and there to the beat.

Funny, beautiful, and moving, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots finds the Flaming Lips continuing to grow and challenge themselves in not-so-obvious ways after delivering their obvious masterpiece.

I’m a sucker for a space adventure and this one was a pleasant one at that. Within seconds of hitting play we’re grabbed into the space aesthetic. I thought this was an early 2010’s album and I was shocked to find out this album is from 02. I’m not sure I really like any songs on their own. The whole album flows very well and does an exceptional job of painting the space atmosphere. It’s Summertime is very beatlesque but definitely not the highlight of the album. The best is not a single track found in the middle or the end of the album. Most of the fun is found in the first five songs and scattered in small parts in the back half of the album. I was looking forward to Yoshimi’s battle with cancer over the course of the album. The greatness of the album both lyrically and musically is mostly only present in the front half. The saying "it’s not about the destination it's about the journey" applies to all 47 minutes of this album. You will definitely find me playing this song on repeat from time to time.

Enjoyed this...though did not attempt to complete the 100-song, 7+ hour "deluxe" version.

I’ve always loved Do You Realize, the rest is fine. Perfectly enjoyable in the background but I wouldn’t put it on deliberately.

A couple of WEIRD songs on this one. But I enjoyed it more than I expected - the tunes and singer were actually kind of soothing, wistful, and dreamy. And then there were space lasers (?) I wonder how the musical was. 3.4 stars.

This one is a hard one to rate. It feels ambitious, and lots of interesting stuff going on. I'm a fan of some of the later songs like "Do you realize", and overall I enjoyed the album. But I would also say it feels rough around the edges, and I think that comes from its age. I listened on youtube and maybe it would have been better listened to without the inherent compression. But anyways, I like it and I think I'll check out some of The Flaming Lips' other stuff.

The flaming shits.

I liked the first song — almost felt like cat stevens. The rest felt like someone did drugs and said “you know what would be cool….”

I have never understood the TFL hype, sloppy and ill recorded in an uncharming way.

I listened to this album before from a recommendation. Wasnt a fan then and still not really a fan. Sort of boring, I get what they were going for though.

Is it weird? Hell yes. But if you just give into it, it's a lovely ride.

Love this album. I don't consider myself to be some major Flaming Lips fan but damn if I don't find myself coming back to this album probably about once a year a loving it every time. 9/10

First of all, I love the cover; would definitely read a book with that cover. The squarish synth sounds would be corny in some other context, but they fit the robot theme. The robots could symbolize artificial emotions and inner coldness, maybe a conflicting inner emotional world - "The calculations error". Also a struggle with choosing love or hate. My interpretation of the B-side is that wallowing in self-pity in a self-centered way is not worth it when you can look around and notice the beauty all around you.

I absolutely love this album

Randomly saw the Flaming Lips at Milwaukee’s Summerfest several years ago, and they played Yoshimi. Although this is the only song from this album I knew, I’ve been listening to a smattering of their songs ever since. This was a great album to hear complete! Simplistic structure in some ways but quite deep lyrically and complex upon careful listening.

One of the greats - with loads of weirdness and beauty

Ugh. Swoon. This one sweeps me away every time. Love every inch of all of it.

É um álbum perfeito para momentos relaxantes, como uma para uma viagem ou para momentos introspectivos, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots é uma experiência única. As letras são poéticas e, muitas vezes, abstratas, dando espaço para interpretações pessoais. produção e os instrumentais são impressionantes, as melodias emocionais e os arranjos sonoros têm um papel vital junto com a combinação de sons sintéticos e orgânicos para proporciona uma sensação de vastidão.

I didn’t know this album had one of my favorite songs on it. Such a fun listen, so unique, almost reminds of sufjan stevens

My favorite Flaming Lips album. It's like a warm hug. Big fan of how Wayne Coyne's vocals sound like this emoji -> 🥹 The first part of the title track is one of the most beautiful songs of all time. Pretty sure this is going to be my final 5/5 of the list, unless something really surprises me (but from what I know is left, I really doubt it).

Easiest 5 I ever gave. Grew up on this album in college. Listened to this album repeatedly, saw them in concert. Great album, great band.

This is one of the albums that changed my life. I've loved "Yoshimi" since I was too young to drive. At first exposure, I liked it because it was weird and fun and different. As I've gotten older the existential and emotional themes masked by time travel and giant pink robots and karate sounds have become more and more potent. The compositions also stand without the gimmicks - but there is something so healing about this group singing these often tragic songs with joy and humor and some of the most outrageous stage props you'll ever see. The first time I saw The Flaming Lips perform live, there was an enormous disco ball on the ceiling and everyone was given a laser pointer, at certain points the crowd would be directed to laser point at the disco ball or other props to create a DIY light show across the auditorium. At the end of the main set, we were told to point our lasers at the front man, Wayne Coyne. His suit had a sort of coating on it that made him radiate light from all of the laser pointers. He gave a speech about love and loss and life while bathed in this celestial glow, and then the band started playing "Do You Realize??" There was a girl next to me who was wearing a giant fuzzy bacon costume, she was rolling on ecstasy and we briefly hugged while she cried. Life is sad and funny and surprising and weird and mysterious and full and brief and everything all at the same time. Everything matters, but we don't have to be serious about it.

Hell yeah. My kids hate this album.

Just beautiful

One of the best

Moody tunes that are perfect for Autumn Sunday afternoon

Amazing!! Never heard it before but its so fresh and fun and conceptual.

Love this album, it has some stand out songs such as Do you realise?? and Yoshimi, but also works well as a complete album. He has a very hypnotic voice which has great accompaniment. 5/5

Glorious, the peak of musical genius.

J’aime tant cet album. J’aime ses récits et son imagerie, j’aime son audace, j’aime que le ludique côtoie le pathétique

I love this record!

I remember when this album was all the rage. It's interesting that it still sounds fresh after 22 years. Even though I'm not a fan who's followed their career, this is wonderful. 4.5 stars for being a solid album and .5 stars for nostalgia.

muy bueno molto buono

This album gets better every time I listen to it.

Great and super trippy. I love it

A perfect mix of psych, pop and everything that makes music fun and wistful.

Fav Songs so far: Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell Do You Realize?? Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1 It's Summertime Super interesting and forward thinking production for the time period. Fun from start to finish. Way ahead of its time!

Memories of high school. So many great songs on this album. Feels like kismet to get this as my first suggestion as I just saw them with Weezer last month! 5 stars

loved this album. can't believe i hadn't listened to it before.

I loved this! Really chill WFH music, reminiscent of video games of the 2010s. Fave songs on ‘Fight Test’ and ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1’.

One of my favorite albums of all time!

5 stars

(THE REVIEW BEGINS... NOW.) Alongside its older sibling THE SOFT BULLETIN, YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS sets my benchmark for dream pop. And believe you me—that's a pretty high bar. A collection of eleven beautiful songs about life and love, all leading up to "Do You Realize??", perhaps the most poignant song I've ever heard about accepting the fact that you will die and making the most out of life while you have it instead. It's another one of those albums where I wanna have more to say about it, but it's wedged itself so deeply in my person that I struggle to really come up with the words. I mean, I guess the album kind of dips a little between the second part of the title track and "Do You Realize??", though ultimately it's a dip from a perfect 10 to a 9.5, and either way it rounds up. Now, if you'll excuse me, I hafta go beg the randomizer to give my group THE SOFT BULLETIN as soon as possible. (THE REVIEW IS OVER... NOW.)

The Lips at their creative peak with just some absolutely stellar psychedelic tunes. Solid 5 for me.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5. For a band formed in 1983, to be able to survive and adapt with the times and survive until 2002 is rather impressive. To make something that sounds this good, and arguably still modern and still totally befitting for 2024, both 19 years after your forming, and 22 years after it came out is downright miraculous – this is an unbelievably well produced album, and its soundscape somehow feels timeless. It blends so many genres and styles; I feel like 70s rock is somehow the foundation of the album, but it’s blended with some R.E.M.-esque vocal work, 90s rave & electronica, and early 2000s hip-hop tropes. In some strange way, it feels totally ahead of its time, oddly nostalgic, and a perfect encapsulation of 2002 rock all at once. I can’t really describe it – this thing defies any conventional logic to me. The only thing I can say is that it sounds fucking awesome. I do wish it had stuck harder to the sci-fi vibe and the more lyrically driven stuff, and that’s really my only knock on the album – I know it’s not meant to be a concept album, but the first 4 tracks are so cohesive and so strong that the album loses its luster the farther it goes away from the initial tracks. Don’t get me wrong, there’s not a bad track on here, but it does feel like it loses cohesion and focuses more heavily on soundscape and vibes. Some people will like that more than others, but for my tastes, I really started to feel like it dragged just a bit too long by the very last track (again, rad as hell, but just doesn’t feel like it should’ve ended the album over All We Have Is Now). That’s why I’m not at a flat 5, but make no mistake – this is too damn good to be anything other than a 5. It’s got a great energy, its production sounds timeless, and it is overwhelmingly cool. It has withstood the test of time in a very tangible way, and that’s apparent to me on my very first listen. I fuck with sci-fi stuff super hard, so this was right down my alley – it impressed me and went above and beyond. It’s a great, great album.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Sonically it was full of twists and turns and kept my ear engaged. I can see myself revisiting this one again :)

It reminds me of Earthbound in the best ways possible! Listening to it makes me smile and now I can't stop listening to all the songs. One of the best of this list.

Unexpected moments between melodic harmony. Lots of unconventional madness here, unique, daring lyrics, and a depth of sound that never really lets up. It's quirky, flawed in some ways, but all of it averages to a lively, soulful endeavor that I very much enjoyed listening to.

Yoshimi Pt 1 is still about a minute and and half too long and it would have been an even greater album with Sunship Balloons on it, but I still love it. Wayne's little voice and naïve wisdom that's not naive at all are made solid sunbeams by the music.

Uno de mis discos favoritos en los primeros años del nuevo milenio por su altamente emotivo y exuberante rock psicodélico. El arranque, "Fight Test", en el que se plantea el concepto del álbum en torno a robots que se humanizan es estupendo. Me encantan las guitarras y los sonidos analógicos de esa emocionante continuación de la historia, en la que los robots empiezan a experimentar sentimientos (quizás una analogía con un ser humano que ama por primera vez), que es "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21". También me gusta bastante la caótica "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2", la culminación de una lucha en la que Yoshimi derrota a los malvados robots rosas, los metaleros, a base de zumbidos, tambores y gritos descomunales. La transición a la siguiente canción, la épica y maravillosa "In the Morning of the Magicians", un tema sobre la rendición del protagonista a las fuerzas de la vida y el universo, es impresionante. Pero el tema que más me gusta del disco es el sencillo "Do You Realize?", hermosa en fondo y forma, con un aire melancólico y existencialista que me cala hasta los huesos. Y sí, todos a los que se ama y conoce morirán algún día, y es triste, pero su existencia siempre será un acto de belleza milagroso como la vida misma. En definitiva un disco absolutamente conmovedor.

Torn between a 4&5. I loved this album for years and saw them live too many times to count. Coming back to it, it's still really good. It meanders a bit towards the end though. It sounds great. I think I talked myself into the 5.

I used to listen to this album and it made me happy imagining Yoshimi fighting pink robots with karate. Ever since I learned that it's about Yoshimi battling cancer, this album makes me cry. I love it

Absolutely sublime.

Amazing

goat album

Perfect!

¡Qué bonito!

What a fun album. The whole thing is good, start to finish. 5/5

Great album. I discovered it couple years ago and have been a great fan of it ever since.

No explanation needed

I loved this album years ago, but hadn’t listened to it in quite a while. I still love it.

Stupendous album full of surprises and a mystical ending. Loved it and will go into the rotation (can’t believe it wasn’t already there).

Wonderful.

weirdly cool

Liked this a lot!

Back when I was a dopey midwestern kid, completely devoid of culture, who thought the only music out there was what was on the radio, I went to a coffee shop in Cleveland. They were spinning Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. My mind was blown in myriad ways. First off, you’re going to sing about how she’s taking vitamins to defeat evil-natured robots? I’d never heard anything so goofy set to music. What an observation! But then other lyrics, all we have is now, do you realize, they all opened my little world just a bit. Secondly, it’s never occurred to me that anyone would sit and listen through a whole record in its entirety until that point. It was this record, and perhaps its cohesion, which sent me on my journey to listening through albums, not just the singles, and it was the coolness of that moment in the Cafè that prompted me to buy a record player and start my own collection. Needless to say, this album was pivotal to me. Returning to it now, it’s hard to be objective. The sound is still big, yoshimi’s shrieks still curdle my blood, and I still hold this album on a pedestal over the other Lips albums. Eventually, I went on to see them in Grant Park at Lollapalooza and was literally rolled over by Wayne Coyne in a bubble. I’ve never seen a show so crazy since. Thank you Yoshimi. Not to mention, as well, how fitting the theme is in today’s climate of rapid AI production. What is human, what is love, and do we fight when the moment arises? Fifth album reviewed from this site.

It’s hard not to go full points here, I just have too much respect for this album despite its flaws. And by far the best thing to come out of Oklahoma, ever.

I'm probably going a big strong on this album but I enjoy it quite a bit. A cohesive non-concept album concept album (I don't care what they say about it not being a concept album). Couple tasty "hits" and overall enjoyable listen that I have revisited many times in the past. 4.5/5

One of my favorite albums. Stellar.

I just listened to this album again, organically, last week. I love Wayne Coyne. His personality, stage presence, ability, and overall aura is awesome. I've seen the Lips twice and they put on an unbelievable show. Of all their albums, I know this one the most, which I'm sure is the case for most, but this album truly rocks front-to-back.

Man, I hadn't listened to this album in years. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life. As a young music lover in OK, seeing The Flaming Lips live was like a rite of passage. My moment came in the summer of 2007 when I was 16. Tulsa used to hold a little music festival called Dfest (RIP, I wish they'd bring Dfest back). My parents drove me and two of my friends out to Tulsa, and man we just had the time of our lives. This was my first like "holy shit" live music experience. When Wayne Coyne rolled out in that bubble and was rolling around in the crowd?? The UFO, the lights? I also think it's the first time I ever smelled weed (I was a late bloomer). Gosh, it was such an incredibly fun concert. About a week or two later, I was driving with my friend over to his house to play some Guitar Hero, when all of a sudden I notice Wayne Coyne standing outside a building near my friend's neighborhood, which is very weird since we live in a suburb outside of OKC, so this felt very random, but there was no mistaking it, that was Wayne Coyne. My friend convinced me to stop to say hello. So I stop and excitedly tell Wayne that I just saw him at Dfest, I even still had my bracelet on from the festival. He was so kind, and invited us inside the building to sign some posters for us, turns out the building was just full of Flaming Lips promo stuff. Listening to this album just brought all those memories rushing to the surface. While I could probably go without hearing Do You Realize?? anymore (this song has kinda worn out its welcome with me), this album is just wonderful. Fight Test is such a great opening track, and I think In the Morning of the Magicians is the unsung hero of this album, such a beautiful song.

Absolutely classic start to finish.