Zaireeka

Album Summary

Zaireeka is the eighth studio album by the American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on October 28, 1997, by Warner Bros. Records. It consists of four CDs designed so that when played simultaneously on four separate audio systems, they would produce a harmonic or juxtaposed sound; the discs could also be played in different combinations, omitting one, two or three discs. Each of its eight songs consists of four stereo tracks, one from each CD. The album's title is a portmanteau of two words. Zaire was chosen as a symbol of anarchy after Wayne Coyne heard a radio news story about the nation's political instability. The word Eureka (literally: "I have found it") was selected as an expression of joyous discovery. Zaireeka was the first album by the band after the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones. It acted as a preview of the music and style that would surface on the next album The Soft Bulletin (1999), which was recorded during the same sessions as Zaireeka, and is the predecessor to the band's more conventional surround sound releases. Jason Josephes from Pitchfork awarded the album a score of 0.0 out of 10; in a scathing review, Josephes criticized the album for being inaccessible, asking "Do I want to buy three more CD players with which to enjoy Zaireeka or, say, eat?" and derided the band's fans. Nonetheless, in June 2002, editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, Mark Richardson published a response to Josephes' review (which has since been deleted), lauding the album and referring to it as "one of the greatest albums ever recorded". Richardson writes: While I understand the desire to own these songs in a format that makes repeat playability easy, that's not what this album is about to me. Zaireeka is not just the album the Flaming Lips released between Clouds Taste Metallic and The Soft Bulletin; it's a challenge to the assumptions behind the idea of recorded music. In October 2009, Richardson went on to write a book titled Zaireeka for the 33 1/3 book series, published by Continuum International Publishing, now owned by Bloomsbury Publishing. In it, Richardson chronicles the creation of the album, praises it from multiple angles, and discusses the impact the album has had on music since its release. The album was included in Pitchfork's 2010 list of "ten unusual CD-era gimmicks".

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