The Soft Bulletin

06/22/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef

Forget about their deranged early '90s smash, "She Don't Use Jelly," Flaming Lips are now older, wiser...and, well, softer. Where previously master Lip Wayne Coyne tossed numerous kitchen sinks and sonic dumptrucks into their twisted, psychedelic pop epics, The Soft Bulletin is sparse and enchanted, like the band has awoken from a long dream spent spinning in outer space.

They still rock, but with a gentle, childlike sense of wonder. "Race For The Prize" soars on Mellotron and feel-good lyrics a la Todd Rundgren's 1980s band Utopia. Ditto for the gloriously orchestral "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton." Much of the album sounds like a children's fantasy soundtrack, such as the instrumental "The Observer," which drifts on bittersweet guitars and heartbeat bass drum, and the theramin-infused Pet Sounds-a-like "Suddenly Everything Has Changed."

But Coyne's mad humor is still present too, as in the Queen-inspired vocal chorus of "Gash," and the goofball cosmic scatting of "Feeling Yourself Disintegrating." Is there life after Jelly? You bet, and it's kinder, gentler, softer...