Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	A
Los Angeles Times
Melody Maker
NME	9/10
Pitchfork Media	10/10
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin	9/10
The Village Voice	B

The Soft Bulletin is the ninth studio album by The Flaming Lips, released by Warner Bros. Records on May 17, 1999 in the UK, Europe and Australia, and on June 22, 1999 in the United States. The album was released to wide critical acclaim and hailed by critics as a departure from their previous guitar-heavy alternative rock sound, into a more layered and intricately arranged work.

The album was considered to mark a change in the course for the band, with more traditional catchy melodies and accessible-sounding music (their previous album, 1997's Zaireeka, was a quadruple album of experimental sounds meant to be played on four separate stereo systems simultaneously) and lyrics that were more serious and thoughtful in content.

The album was noted for its fusion of ordinary rock instruments, electronic beats and synthesizers. Its large, layered, symphonic sound has also earned it a reputation as the Pet Sounds of the 1990s from a few critics.

The cover artwork of the album is a modified version of a photograph taken by Lawrence Schiller for a 1966 Life magazine article on LSD.

The Soft Bulletin was lauded by critics and fans alike and topped numerous "Best of 1999" lists. The album is now considered by many to be the Flaming Lips's masterpiece.The Soft Bulletin is considered by some to be partially responsible for establishing the latter-day identity of The Flaming Lips, and as its following expanded over the years after its release, paving the way to their being among the most well-respected groups of the 2000s. The album sold 38,000 copies in the U.S. in 2006.

In 2006, Robert Dimery chose The Soft Bulletin and its follow-up Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots as part of his book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.Pitchfork Media ranked the album 3rd on the Top 100 albums of the 1990s list, and awarded it a rare score of 10.0.

Upon the album's ten-year anniversary in May 2009, The Record Review featured the album as a part of its "Ten Years Later" feature, saying that "ten years removed, The Soft Bulletin is still an undeniably essential listen that belongs in every record collection." Since late 2010, the album have been sporadically performed live in its entirety over the years, and on May 26, 2016, an orchestra was used to embellish sounds of the album while the band played their main instruments for the album at the concert.

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Wikipedia