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Earlier this year, The Flaming Lips announced plans to anthologize their early, pre-Warner Bros. recordings on two collections.  Scratching the Door: The First Recordings of The Flaming Lips, with 19 tracks from the alternative band, arrived in April, while the 6-CD box set Seeing the Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990 is on the schedule for June 29.  (Read about both releases here.)  Joining that pair of titles is a new compilation out now focusing on the band’s major label days at Warner Bros. Records.  Greatest Hits Vol. 1 is a 3-CD compendium packed with fan favorites, rarities, and new-to-CD tracks.  A single-LP vinyl edition with 11 tracks is also available.

The Flaming Lips signed with Warner Bros. in 1991, and the next year, their debut LP (the band’s fifth overall) arrived.  Hit to Death in the Future Head, from the line-up of Wayne Coyne, Michael Ivins, Jonathan Donahue, and Nathan Roberts, inaugurated a string of thirteen Warner albums to date, the most recent being 2017’s Oczy Mlody.  While Hit to Death failed to chart, their next album, 1993’s Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, placed at No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and also reached No. 108 on the Billboard 200.  The band had its commercial breakthrough with 2002’s concept album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  Later adapted into a stage musical, Yoshimi was certified Gold and reached No. 50 on the Billboard 200.  At War with the Mystics (2006) and Embryonic (2009) charted even higher, reaching No. 11 and No. 8, respectively.  Subsequent projects included album-length tributes to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and collaborations with artists such as Bon Iver, Tame Impala, Jim James, Nick Cave, and Yoko Ono.

The CD iteration of Greatest Hits features 52 tracks on 3 CDs including “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1,” “Waitin’ for a Superman (Is It Getting Heavy?),” “She Don’t Use Jelly” (memorably covered by Ben Folds Five), “Spider-Man vs. Muhammad Ali,” and a cover of “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz.  The vinyl LP edition boils the collection down to just 11 tracks.  The full set is also available from digital service providers.

This expansive celebration of The Flaming Lips’ Warner Bros. years is available now.  It can be ordered at the links below!

The Flaming Lips, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (Warner Bros. Records, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Disc 1

1. Talkin’ ‘Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)
2. Hit Me Like You Did The First Time
3. Frogs
4. Felt Good To Burn
5. Turn It On
6. She Don’t Use Jelly
7. Chewin’ The Apple Of Your Eye
8. Slow Nerve Action
9. Psychiatric Explorations Of The Fetus With Needles
10. Brainville
11. Lightning Strikes The Postman
12. When You Smile
13. Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)
14. Riding To Work In The Year 2025
15. Race For The Prize (Sacrifice Of The New Scientists)
16. Waitin’ For a Superman (Is It Getting Heavy?)
17. The Spark That Bled
18. What Is The Light?

Disc 2

1. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
2. In The Morning Of The Magicians
3. All We Have Is Now
4. Do You Realize??
5. The W.A.N.D.
6. Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung
7. Vein Of Stars
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
9. Convinced Of The Hex
10. See The Leaves
11. Silver Trembling Hands
12. Is David Bowie Dying?
13. Try To Explain
14. Always There…In Our Hearts
15. How??
16. There Should Be Unicorns
17. The Castle

Disc 3

1. Zero To a Million (Demo)
2. Jets (Cupid’s Kiss Vs. The Psyche Of Death) (2-Track Demo)
3. Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair
4. The Captain
5. 1000 Ft. Hands
6. Noodling Theme (Epic Sunset Mix #5)
7. Up Above The Daily Hum
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (In Anatropous Reflex)
9. We Can’t Predict The Future
10. Your Face Can Tell The Future
11. You Gotta Hold On
12. What Does It Mean?
13. Spider-Man Vs. Muhammad Ali
14. I Was Zapped By The Lucky Super Rainbow
15. Enthusiasm For Life Defeats Existential Fear Pt. 2
16. If I Only Had a Brain
17. Silent Night/Lord, Can You Hear Me

LP

1. Do You Realize??
2. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
3. Race For The Prize
4. Waitin’ For a Superman
5. When You Smile
6. She Don’t Use Jelly
7. Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)
8. The W.A.N.D.
9. Silver Trembling Hands
10. The Castle
11. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

Disc 1, Tracks 1-4 from Hit To Death In The Future Head (Warner Bros. Records, 1992)
Disc 1, Tracks 5-8 from Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (Warner Bros. Records, 1993)
Disc 1, Tracks 9-13 from Clouds Taste Metallic (Warner Bros. Records, 1995)
Disc 1, Track 14 and Disc 3, Track 3 from Zaireeka (Warner Bros. Records, 1997)
Disc 1, Tracks 15-18 from The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros. Records, 1999)
Disc 2, Tracks 1-4 from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Warner Bros. Records, 2002)
Disc 2, Tracks 5-8 from At War With The Mystics (Warner Bros. Records, 2006)
Disc 2, Tracks 9-11 from Embryonic (Warner Bros. Records, 2009)
Disc 2, Track 12 from The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends (Warner Bros. Records, 2012)
Disc 2, Tracks 13-14 from The Terror (Warner Bros. Records, 2013)
Disc 2, Tracks 15-17 from Oczy Mlody (Warner Bros. Records, 2017)
Disc 3, Tracks 4-5 and 9 from The Soft Bulletin 5.1 (Warner Bros. Records, 2005)
Disc 3, Track 6 from “Do You Realize???” DVD single (Warner Bros. Records, 2002)
Disc 3, Track 7 from “Do You Realize???” 7″ and CD single (Warner Bros. Records, 2002)
Disc 3, Track 8 from “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” single (Warner Bros. Records, 2006)
Disc 3, Track 10 from At War With The Mystics 5.1 (Warner Bros. Records, 2006)
Disc 3, Track 11 from “The W.A.N.D.” 7″ and CD single (Warner Bros. Records, 2006)
Disc 3, Track 12 from iTunes edition of Embryonic (Warner Bros. Records, 2009)
Disc 3, Track 13 from Spider-Man 3: Music From and Inspired By (Record Collection, 2007)
Disc 3, Track 14 from Good Luck Chuck: Motion Picture Soundtrack (Lionsgate, 2007)
Disc 3, Track 15 from Gummy Song Fetus (Lovely Sorts of Death/Warner Bros. Records, 2011)
Disc 3, Track 16 from Stubbs The Zombie: The Soundtrack (Shout! Factory, 2005)
Disc 3, Track 17 from Warner Bros. Records single, 2008