Zaireeka (studio album) by The Flaming Lips

Heavy, immersive, inventive and emotional, Zaireeka doesn't seem to get the love it deserves, presumably because people either view it as a gimmick or just can't find a way to play it (CDs/Vinyls are expensive and require 4 devices, not available on Spotify, YouTube laden with ads, etc). I'd say it's up there with Transmissions and Clouds in terms of quality, but still is totally its own thing. Really does feel like an experience.

From teague 08/17/2021 23:05

I've yet to experience this album properly, but the songs are great and the idea behind the album is really cool.

I work for a school and run a club that listens to full records once a week. This is the only album I have done every year, the very last album of the year. So much fun with high schoolers.

One of my favourites from them and just about scrapes into my top 100 greatest albums chart, which is no mean feat ! "Zaireeka" is unashamedly experimental and melodically complex, but actually the songs are quite accessible and quite frankly excellent. It's a brave step into the unknown for the Lips who flirt with the progressive pop that defines some of their later records, but as it is, this is a grand achievement and a slightly forgotten one at that.

I don't even have to listen to this simultaneously through 4 speakers around my room to recognise that this is a staggering record (for your information, there are a few uploads of "Zaireeka" on YouTube where all four CDs are compressed, so check it out if you're unable to listen to it in the intended way).

Also, it's not just filled to the brim with uniformly great compositions, it provides a crucial turning point between their noise rock records in the past decade and their poppier psychedelic records in the future. "Zaireeka" is a brave step forward from "Clouds Taste Metallic" where they experiment with an eclectic range of sounds and frequencies, coalescing together to form extravagant chaos. This isn't just for die-hard fans of The Flaming Lips, it's for music lovers everywhere... and hopefully I'll listen to it at a Zaireeka event at some point in my life, I imagine the experience will be completely different.

From flamingyesdept 05/28/2016 19:15

Really inventive and brilliant album which, like all of the Lips' work, deserves far, far more praise than it gets

If you don't want that many complications to listen to an album, there's a version around that condenses all four CDs into one, so the album can be listened to normally without needing more than one player.

Having listened to that, it may lose some of the wow factor, but the album still sounds great, with its characteristic Flaming Lips sound.

Best tracks: Your Invisible Now, A Machine in India

From koner1 08/28/2014 03:32

Certainly not a 0.0 album like Pitchfork thinks it is!

From SingingPeasant96 03/11/2013 07:37

@junodog4/I did it, and bloody cool, you just don't need to have 4 portable mp3 player. I just did it using 4 other music player software on Computer, anyway nice album.

From junodog4 06/19/2012 02:33

What a cool concept. Each album works on it own, and there are 14 different combinations of discs to listen together before you try all four. What an ambitious project. Playing all 4 together actually works. Try it. Get 3 other music nerds, grab some portable players, sit in a room and time out the play buttons. It's worth it for the social experiment, and it sounds pretty cool too. This should get greater acclaim than it does on it's status as an artistic project and musical event.