Critics' Choice 1999

1. The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin [warner brothers]
Before 1998, Warners had most likely given up all hope of ever recouping their outlay on extraordinary but uncompromising albums like the guitar symphony of Clouds Taste Metallic or the 4-CD madness of Zaireeka. Then they produced this, a sprawling masterpiece that seemed to fuse Carlos Castaneda, Stanley Kubrick, Brian Wilson and Roky Erickson into one vast, ambitious symphony. Few bands could make the listener laugh, cry and suffer a psychotropic flashback within the space of the same song.
2. Tom Waits – Mule Variations [epitaph]
3. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See A Darkness [domino]
4. Tindersticks – Simple Pleasure [island]
5. Beck – Midnite Vultures [geffen]