The Soft Bulletin
by The Flaming Lips
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The Flaming Lips bestography
The Soft Bulletin is ranked 2nd best out of 47 albums by The Flaming Lips on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Flaming Lips is Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots which is ranked number 116 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 10,621.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The Soft Bulletin on YouTube
The Soft Bulletin track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 85 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Soft Bulletin rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Jorbaa | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 43/100 | 58 |
| 2026 | bonnequestion | My top 100 from BEA's top 1000 | 26/100 | - |
| 2026 |  C_Krug2009 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 73/100 | 27 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Oaza Best Albums 1999 | 19/30 | - |
| 2026 | Rivera | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 58/100 | 9 |
| 2026 | Siromynian | Top 28 Music Albums of 1999 | 23/28 | 1 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Q magazine Recordings Of The Year 1999 | 15/50 | - |
| 2026 | pinkfreud1981 | Best 100 albums ever. ( 1 per artist) | 72/100 | - |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Wanted Urgent | 38/70 | - |
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 11/100 | 18 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 1,298 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 10,449 | |||
The Soft Bulletin collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 680 members
The Soft Bulletin ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 1,545 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 3 days ago | TheWongs | 881 | 71/100 |
| ! | 09/28/2026 00:00 |  AvalancheGrips | 784 | 85/100 |
| ! | 09/19/2026 06:02 | Simon_bramhall | 1,394 | 77/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 83.1/100, a mean average of 81.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.2.
The Soft Bulletin favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 291 members
The Soft Bulletin forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 3 days ago in Monthly overall chart movements - September 2026 BestEverAlbums 3 days ago in Chart of the day (#5453): By Bach BestEverAlbums 09/27/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5448): By GlitterboiiiThe Soft Bulletin comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Wow. Masterpiece. Flowed very smoothly, and there really weren't any tracks I disliked.I think this was better than Yoshimi, and definitely think this album has a spot in my top ten, if not my top 5 of all time. Great album, but it took me three listens to really absorb all of the beauty, and it was worth it. Amazing.
Update: I was really high when I wrote this review but I stick by it.
babyBlueSedan TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/14/2014 02:32 | #119468 | TOP COMMENT
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As I wrote in my notes for this album in my chart, this is one of the most optimistically depressing albums I've heard. The theme throughout is that when things aren't going so well it should enforce how great the times gone by were, since they provide a reference point for the current times being not so good. But that's a hard pill to swallow when things aren't going your way. All of the instrumentation is spot-on, and the album provides just enough of a plot to make it feel like a rock opera without it seeming pretentious.
Also an album I have an immense personal connection to, as I listened to it at a time when life seemed to be spiraling downhill. Now as I've moved on and life has carried me away from most of the people I knew then and my opinion of those times has changed, the them really hits me hard. The cover is also flawless, I always feel like the figure on the cover when I hear the album.
Mr. Shankly TOP 100 COMMENTER 06/03/2007 10:32 | #431 | TOP COMMENT
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If Brian Wilson was the leader of Pink Floyd, it might sound something like this, absolutely beautiful.
The Gollux 11/27/2008 05:53 | #1916 | TOP COMMENT
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its amazing how good this album actually is. should be way higher on the list. "the gash", my personal favorite.
best album of the 90's imo (Yes better than that one, you know which one i'm talking about.)
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