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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Boring hipster music

Mostly fine apart from the plagiarism

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.

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.

I feel like this is what people listen to at Coachella

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 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.

This is the music playing over the speakers of a thrift store that charges $300 for a vintage t-shirt where the cashier doesn’t speak to you unless she thinks you’re trying to shoplift, despite the fact that the only size they have in stock in XXXS.

Blergh. Reading this list you conclude that the early 2000s were garbage for music. This overhyped undercooked recording won’t disabuse that. Boring and dull. 1 star.

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

I forgot the accusations of plagiarising Cat Stevens, but it's the first thing that comes up. It's unavoidable. But Fight Test is not just inspired by Father and Son — it’s a tracing-paper copy. And Wayne Coyne doesn’t stop at the melody. He borrows Stevens’ soft-spoken voice, his scraggly-beard mysticism, and his knack for disguising banality as profundity. That theft is a fitting emblem for the whole album, which takes the Flaming Lips’ history of chaos and eccentricity and runs it through a filter until only the safest, most palatable parts remain. Mortality is reduced to a Hallmark koan on Do You Realize?? Lyrics that are passable as single lines, become embarrassingly procedural as couplets: "She has to discipline her body." The ecstatic messiness that once made them a threat to alt-rock convention is smoothed into a “psychedelic pop” template that thousands of festival bands would later Xerox. The live experience follows suit. Gone are the days of Coyne coating his face in blood capsules, a grotesque but genuine commitment to spectacle. In its place: carnival distractions. Mascot costumes, confetti, a man in a hamster ball rolling across his fans like a germophobe’s parody of crowdsurfing. Even Yoshimi P-We herself, a genuinely feral drummer with OOIOO and Boredoms (a better live act than Flaming Lips to my mind), is turned into a cartoon heroine, her wildness replicated in miniature by Steven Drozd on the title track. The abandon is gone; what’s left is 'good fun,' which is another way of saying nothing is at stake. The timing made sense. Recorded between 2000 and 2002, the album tried to bottle post-millennial optimism, as if cheer alone could stave off the War on Terror. But that optimism reads, in retrospect, as retreat: a band that once threatened genuine disorder and danger choosing instead to play comforter-in-chief. Two decades later, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is remembered as the Flaming Lips’ breakthrough. But listen closely and it sounds more like their surrender. Pink Robots 5 Flaming Lips 2 Producer Dave Fridmann’s trademark hard-edged drums and funny noises belie just how dull is the music on this album. The melodies, when they aren’t borrowed from Cat Stevens, have a lumbering gracelessness that I was going to compare to the work of Oasis but truthfully even when I recalled the rudimentary melodic work of Liam’s songs - Little James or Songbird - it does not capture the musical lifelessness of a melody like ‘Are You a Hypnotist?’. Here is one of the most puzzling sets of failed attempts I have come across, and it is all the more puzzling for the enthusiasm which many people (mostly Americans I think) have greeted this album for over twenty years. The title track well captures at least part of the puzzle. It is neither fish nor fowl. Coming on, superficially, like a Studio Ghibli theme song by making plain character sketching the meat of the lyric, but there is no commitment to the character or concept - the second verse adds little to the first but ‘vitamins’. It’s a faint sketch - not an animation. More importantly, it fatally lacks real commitment to any audience - not animated and earnest enough for a child, not winking or amusing enough for an adult. It is a pound shop Totoro. ‘One More Robot’ suffers from the same problems. There is little but blank (and unpoetic) generalities about robots. Where is the drama and detail? It is a pound shop Jed the Humanoid. The puzzle of Wayne Coyne can be found here too. He comes off as a half-assed children’s entertainer, twee sure, but where are the exaggerated vocal and facial gestures that really capture and hold the wain’s attention? He leaves that all up to Dave Fridmann’s bag of funny noises and they can’t carry that burden. Wayne couldn’t pull off 2 minutes at a birthday party before kids would go missing. He ought not to be much of an entertainer of adults either. Setting aside the witless sawing at acoustic guitar and the melodic waddling, we are left with the favourite talking point of this album’s many champions - the Philosophy. For Wayne Coyne, you know, has insights about life and love and the universe to drop; most notably on ‘Do You Realise?’ I think the appeal of this musically putrid bore of a song must reside in its philosophical contribution - for many listeners it plainly succeeds in neatly papering over the gaping lacuna at the heart of Barney the Dinosaur’s account of human existence. But let me speak up for Barney. Sure, he never looked our mortality full in the face, but unlike Wayne Coyne he could do a good voice and I’m sure Barney mentioned the beautiful face thing more than once. 1.5/5

Fine, average, doesn’t stand out over any other early-00s indie kind of stuff to me and I have no real knowledge of the band so don’t really know why it was included. The opening track is pretty cool, the rest sort of blended for me. (1.5 stars)

The flaming shits.

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

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

An incredibly unique and pleasurable listening experience.

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

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.

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 really fell in live with this album when it was first released in 2002. I had previously considered the Flaming Lips a bit of a novelty act, especially based on "She Don't Use Jelly", which got a lot of radio play but I found super annoying. I never glommed on to any of their albums before or since, but somehow this album just clicked. There are some really great tunes and a "budget lush" aesthetic that appeals to me. I really like the lofi production and big orchestrations (using cheap detuned keyboards), and generally hippy vibe, lyrical material that veers between the humorous and the profound, an embrace of life while acknowledging the reality of sadness and despair. There are lots of reasons that I shouldn't like this album; concept album, sci-fi themes, self-conscious psychedelia, over-produced. But I really do. I think I was really primed for this. I had just become a father, which I found a wonderful and frightening experience, and had me thinking about what it means to be a man and mortality. I felt like this was one of the few albums that approached those themes with complexity and humanity and a lack of judgement. It was warm and reassuring, while simultaneously acknowledging that life can be confusing and scary. 'Fight Test' and 'Do you realize?' were the standout tracks for me, then and now, but I can happily listen to the whole record all the way through. I never liked any of their other records. They tended to be unfocussed and trying too hard to be... quirky or twee or cute or wacky something. Maybe when it came down to it, they only really had one great album in them. I really like this record, and it was a pleasure to revisit it like an old friend. 4.5 stars, rounding up.

I've listened to this album, and didn't quite understand it. So I did it again. And again. And again. And somewhere along the way, I've realized that I don't quite understand it still, but I've grown to like it. It's the right amount of experimental. Easy to listen to, a bit hazy, a bit sweet, a bit bitter. Maybe one day I'll understand this album better.

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

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

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.

I don’t understand why anyone needs to hear this before they die. Listening to this made me want to die, though.

I don't even know what it is, but there's something magical about this...

Very good and weird sounding

Just too good texturally, too well put together, too emotional, relatable, and just surprisingly down to earth as an album despite its out-of-this-world themes, to give it anything less than a five.

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

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

It’s weird in the best way The direct subject manner is really unique; not many other albums are about fighting man eating pink robots, but the underlying theme of life/death is just well done. Do You Realize is just a great, powerful song that has one of the most well executed key changes in a rock song I can think of, and Yoshimi 1 is super catchy and does a great job setting up the absolute madness of part 2. Vocals are nice, and the wide variety of (synthesized?) strings and horns adds a full body to so many of these songs I think the album’s a bit slow at times; I wish it sounded a bit more like the first few on this album. it’s not the end of the world since even the slower tempo songs have lots of energy in them at times, but there’s a couple of songs that are just kinda nothing It’s cool that The Flaming Lips were able to tread that line between weird and actually sounding good that so many other artists just blatantly fail at. It’s got really powerful imagery that makes this one super memorable

The Good: We are sure to get action! The Bad: I am uncertain who won the battle… The Ugly: Flaming lips??? Moist, yes… Let’s go back to the glorious ‘90s, Aug 13th 1993, to be exact. It was a couple days before my Bday, and a friend of mine gave me, as a pre-bday gift, the honors of being the bartender at the post-show-party of the triple bill Butthole Surfers || Flaming Lips || Stone Temple Pilots… The show? A total blur. I recall have a blast, backstage passes, getting shot down by almost every groupy that I tried to hit on… duh. Then came the post-show-party, or whatever the fuck you call it, and there I was, wielding the only bottle opener around. All of a sudden I became the best friend of many and all. I can remember when mr Wieland showed up, in a dress, he was all diva-esque… I did not care for divas. Then, at my side, a person presented himself who was tall, not as tall as I, but not short… and we bonded. I know that he was the lead singer of one of the other bands, both of which I knew very little/nothing about, but we had a blast just fucking around with other people. The friendship lasted as long as it did… 45 minutes, and off they all went as the tour didn’t end there. The rest of the evening I hung-out with the roadies, and holy fuck, what a great time that was! Probably one of my finest evenings in the ‘90s, and I spend many a fine evening in the ‘90s But I digress… we are here to rate this album… never heard of it. For ages I thought that my buddy was the singer of The Flaming Lips, yet I never went so far as to check them out further… Then, as this album showed itself today, I checked to see the height of the singer, Mr Coyne, to find that it was not he, but Mr Haynes, who I had such a joyful time with… This album… I think that I’ve listened to it 5 times in the course of 24 hours. For one, because it is a gentle length, and the songs just all kind of blend well. Oh, and here’s a thought, there is a little stealing going on during the song “In The Morning Of The Magicians” which sounds a lot like Tears For Fears gloomy “Listen” from their 5* album Songs From The Big Chair. Anyway, I was reading a review from a person who adores The Flaming Lips, and he/she made the comment that, though great the album is, it is not as great as the three albums which preceded this one… So, to tip my hat to that fellow reviewer, I too shall bestow upon The Lips in Flames the 4*, which is great as this means the album will become part of my frequent rotation!!!! Love’d it!

I have heard this album before but forgot most of it. This album sends you to space, forces you to dance, then welcomes you back with a warm depressing hug.

Cosmic, experiential, narrative, immersive. The kind of sci-fi that makes you feel more human than before.

Do You Realize is one of the more intense top 40 songs you'll likely ever hear and I always had a soft spot for these guys but literally every time I have tried to play this album I ended up listening to Cat Stevens, who (whom?) I don't even like very much.

I keep thinking I bought this album, or at least something by them, but every time I look at my digitized collection, I don't see it, so I'm always relegated to hearing them in somewhat random circumstances. Until now! The wait was worth it, and I enjoyed the album quite a bit, although probably not as much as the album title and cover promised all those years ago. My favorites are some of their singles--"Fight test" (a fun adaptation from Cat Stevens' "Father and Son", but a shame that there was a royalties battle with this, and it didn't even involve poor Yoshimi; the video was pretty good too), the song and video for "Yoshimi battles the the pink robots, Pt. 1" and their big hit (and video) "Do you realize?"--but I also found the whole album entertaining, in a laid-back, almost Radiohead-esque sort of way, and it also feels like the band members don't take themselves too seriously (very appealing). It was also fun to read that there's a real-life person behind the album's Yoshimi (Yoshimi P-We), as well as the reference to "In the morning of the magicians", an apparently French 60s cult classic book that inspired the likes of H. P. Lovecraft. Plus, of course, that Aaron Sorkin was (initially) involved in a musical version of the album/storyline, and that the band convinced Justin Timberlake to play bass (wearing a dolphin costume no less) on "Yoshimi battles the the pink robots, Pt. 1" for "Top of the Pops". Good stuff!

I loved Transmissions from the Satellite Heart when it came out, but it didn’t necessarily give me a full portrait of who Wayne Coyne was as a songwriter. When this album dropped it sort of blew my mind. I listened to this CD until I couldn’t play it anymore. And it was hard to reconcile it with who I thought The Flaming Lips were. This album showed that the group had great flexibility while remaining true to a vision of themselves. A really good album by a really important band.

Groovy.. liked the album

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.

Hmm.. from one angle Yoshimi is quite charming, bright and tuneful neo-psychedelia; from another it's quite irritating, the singer often cloying and off-key, while its best melody found a girl and settled down long ago. I liked the whole affair when it came out much more than I did today (having not seen the band live yet then, horrible..). Some talent here, not as much longevity. 3rd playthrough put me at a high 3.

What the fuck were we all on in the early noughties?! This was lauded as a masterpiece on its arrival into the public ear, when in reality it really isn’t. It’s acceptable to listen to and that’s all, not much more than that. A reason why it was discarded from my collection during the last purge!

Another band I had never heard of, but I thought they were ok. I could’ve done without the Star Wars noises in some of the songs, though. I won’t want to hear this one again, and give it a ho-hum 3 stars.

This is interesting enough but I would not say I like it all that much. 3 stars or C.

It was ok.

Funky. Fresh. Futuristic. But also nostalgic. I’d play this album for the aliens.

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.

Like Radiohead without much variation. Probably made sense at the time it came out but it's too sad sounding.

Awful

Along with their siblings Mercury Rev, I associate The Flaming Lips with a languorous strain of baroque psychedelia that mostly glides past me, apart from MR’s “Deserter’s Songs”, which is shared favourite with my copilot on this mission. This did not move me.

Bleah!!!!

Good music to cut yourself to

Ok

Decent background music but probably not one I'd seek out again.

Yeah so I’m gonna slightly lay into this one. Quite simply, what on earth is/was the fuss about this band, and this album in particular?! It really is bang average (at best) psych pop music. I quite liked a chord change at the end of ‘are you a hypnotist’, but other than that there isn’t anything that’s novel or interesting on here - none of the songs ‘do’ anything! There’s a stack of other psych/pop/indie bands better than this. I’m going to assume the live show is the reason for the misdirected adoration. And to be fair, having seen them at a festival a couple of years ago (admittedly not at their peak, but still headlining - it was a small festival) they do have a cracking light show and some big inflatables (not sure if that’s good or bad), and they did quite a passable ‘euphoric ending’. But my overriding memory was thinking ‘why is there a bloke in a Zorb singing’? It was novel for a song I suppose. But then he was in there for ages, which was a bit boring as he didn’t move around (which I thought was the point of being in a Zorb), and then I started to worry for his welfare, was he hot in there, did he need some fresh air or a nice drink of water etc? Well fortunately they got him out after a while, phew. But guess what, he got back in again to repeat the, let’s call it ‘trapped singer’ vibe, for the encore. Not sure if it was entertaining, just weird and baffling, and clearly designed to cleverly misdirect the audience from the tunes. Which brings us back to the point of writing this…….this album is dull.

Some funny stories, influenced by Japanese culture. Sounds are interesting and "futuristic", but you have to get through Wayne Coyne's falsetto voice.

I’m not even sure what I think about this record. There are some really nice sounds and instrumental moments, and while Wayne’s voice has always been an acquired taste I’ve never quite acquired, it’s hard for me to argue that it doesn’t fit pretty perfectly with a song like “Do You Realize?” But I truly spent much of this record wondering… what if this was a Beastie Boys album? All those farty synth sounds and occasional samples, plus those big drum beats with an emphasis on the open hi-hat - I’m telling you, I think post-Ill Communications era Beasties could have taken this exact same music and made something with much more vitality and fun. And I guess that’s the real beef. I wish this album were as fun as the title.

didn’t really understand the concept and it bore me, it is a no for me.

I'll be honest, I didn't listen. Not the vibe.

Ok this sucked. The instrumentals sounded like an indie-version of AJR and the singer could not sing at all. I had multiple "wtf is this" moments while listening, and not in a good way.

Very meh

Easy 5. Just saying, good fucking music.

Wayne doesn’t have the greatest voice but the bands quirkiness and originality has grown on me. Not many people writing songs about robot battlers. “In the Morning of the magicians” and “Do You Realize” are quite lovely. Overall, it is a pretty / melancholy album. “It’s Summertime” and “All We Have Is Now” drew me in on this listen.

Love this. Not objective about it. 5 Boolean: True

Cool pschydelic chops. Glad I went to see these recently. Life affirming music.

“Some say life is hard, but that is just talk. It is good to be alive, it is exciting!” Dreams (1990)

This is one of those albums that will always be dear to my heart with The Soft Bulletin. The Flaming Lips have this capacity to make catchy songs but at the same time there is always some experimental part to the songs. And the mix of sadness and hapyness of a song like "Do You Realize?" will always move something for me. One of their best song. The verse "And instead of saying all of your goodbyes / Let them know you realize / That life goes fast / It's hard to make good things last" is so right and as I get older it only gets more and more right. Favorite Songs: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1 & Part 2 ; In the Morning of the Magicians ; Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell ; Do You Realize??

As far as concept albums about Japanese musicians battling monster robots go, this is probably the best I’ve heard. 5 stars

Brad you’re still a star short, but I guess I’m pleased you at least gave it a 4 :)

Inject into my veins please

Цікаво) Обкладинка прикольна)

BUT YOU WONT LET THOSE ROBOTS DEFEAT ME

10/10, 100/100, one of the best albums eva

LOVE

Cómo no le voy a poner 5 estrellas so este disco me hizo darme cuenta que stamos flotando en el espacio, que la felicidad te hace llorar, que todos los que conozco algún día morirán y en lugar de decir todas tus despedidas hazles saber que te das cuenta de que la vida pasa rápido. Es difícil hacer que las cosas buenas duren.

imagine how good the drums have to be for me to be able to realize “wow this album has really good drums”

It's been about two years since I listened to The Soft Bulletin. As I mentioned back then, I first heard of The Flaming Lips through a few songs from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, namely part one of the title track and "Do You Realize??" I figured I would be in for a treat based on those two, and that ended up being an understatement. This is a very trippy neo-psychedelic record with elements of space rock scattered throughout the listening experience. The juxtaposition of organic instrumentation and whirring electronic flourishes creates eclectic soundscapes. Whether it's letting the gurgling synths go all out against the clashing drums for the fight scene of part two of the title track, or the ambient whirs that give way to a gentle acoustic strum paired with Wayne Coyne's hazy delivery on "In the Morning of Magicians", there is inherent beauty in the crossbreeding of these sounds, well-structured and arranged throughout the runtime with spacious production to boot. As for the lyrical content, I found it intriguing that the band wove together a series of loose science fiction narratives. I never got the sense of a concept album, because the actual battle between the young girl Yoshimi and the robots ended rather early on the record. I'm cool with it, because it meant that the band felt free to explore other stories to express and convey a wide array of human emotions and experiences. Contemplating the universe in relation to our own everyday decisions on "In the Morning of the Magicians", the inability to reciprocate one's feelings on "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell", being cheated on and manipulated by someone else on "Are You a Hypnotist?", encouraging someone to come out of their isolation on "It's Summertime", and finally accepting one's death and how precarious our existence is on "Do You Realize??", further explored with the time traveler's realization to live our one life to the fullest on "All We Have is Now". These themes all came across as genuine and earnest through Wayne, making for such a wholesome and engaging listen. It was a lot to reflect on as the album closed with a breathtaking instrumental journey in "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)". I thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I'm not sure The Flaming Lips ever recaptured the artistic highs they reached with this record, but I can accept that we at least got this gem out of them.

I would like Do You Realise??? Played at My funeral. So I’m glad I heard this before I died.

I heard it live in full last year and i don’t think it’ll ever sound better than that. However, I still enjoy it a ton every time I stick it on. Such a fun record! Favourite Track: All We Have Is Now

Missed this at the time but loved it now

This album was a pleasant surprise. Made up for a couple of the awful ones.

Beautiful work

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I'm convinced it is a concept album - or at least, strongly themed. Flight Test, In The Morning of the Magicians, Are You A Hypnotist?? and It's Summertime were the standouts. A really cool, complex, chaotic but calm, and relatively sober, album. I strongly hear Father and Son in the first track.

One of my favorite albums of the 2000s. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips is a brilliant, whimsical, and deeply moving electronic-pop album. The music blends bright synthesizers, fuzzy basslines, and gentle acoustic guitars into a colorful sonic dream. It mixes a playful sci-fi story about fighting evil robots with touching, mature thoughts on life, love, and mortality. Tracks like the joyful anthem "Do You Realize??" offer listeners a rare sense of comfort and childlike wonder. Are You a Hypnotist is another favorite. Brilliant all around.