The Flaming Lips

The trio's second disc since reimagining itself on 1997's Zaireeka, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is casually electronic and curiously acoustic. Sounds from both ends of the musical spectrum crash in the middle and collapse into smiling, sad piles of overcast optimism and, as leader Wayne Coyne puts it, "sunshine funerals." If it's not quite as good as 1999's The Soft Bulletin, it's only because the band (Coyne, Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins) probably raised the bar a little out of reach.

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More About

• Wayne Coyne
• Steven Soderbergh
• Steven Drozd
• Michael Ivins
• Radiohead

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So Yoshimi shivers in the shadow a bit, but just a little, avoiding further comparison to The Soft Bulletin by inverting the formula: Bulletin was a sad record with an uncomfortable grin on its face; Yoshimi is a hopeful laugh hidden behind a tear-stained handkerchief. (Example: a song about death called "It's Summertime.") A sequel in spirit and timing only (think of it as a Steven Soderbergh film: markedly different from the last, but filtered through the same set of eyes), Yoshimi looks like a concept album on the outside. But other than in a trilogy of songs — "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" parts 1 and 2 — that definition just provides an easy answer for a record that asks a lot questions ("Are You a Hypnotist??" and "Do You Realize?" among them).

Note to Radiohead: This is how you grow as a band without growing apart from what made you interesting in the first place, and how you challenge your audience without turning into a long-winded word problem that no one has the time or patience to solve. This is another soft bullet that hits harder than you'd expect.