_{Original cover art by Wayne Coyne}

You might’ve noticed that this week’s entire music section is devoted to the greatest show on earth, the Flaming Lips. There was simply too much to say about the band to cram into a simple feature.

From the Stones’ eyebrow-singing pyrotechnics to Motley Crue’s flying drum kit to GWAR’s ejaculating space penis, rock bands have gone for spectacle to overload the senses and forge unforgettable moments. But nobody’s done it with the love, the sincerity, the humility, and the confetti of the Lips. From the beginning, they’ve made their live shows unpredictable, dangerous encounters between volume and theater. Twenty years after their humble tweaker-punk begninnings, they’ve evolved into a full-blown, arena-sized circus, a little more predictable and a little less dangerous, but unquestionably, unfailingly awesome.

Hopefully you’ll be at the show tonight to witness what they do so well. At a Lips show, the music works in service to the overall experience. And that experience is the greatest, most fulfilling, most-life affirming form of entertainment you can have. Be prepared for maximum elation for a full two hours.

If not, check out The Soft Bulletin, the first and greatest album of the new millennium.

Yes, it came out in 1999, but musically, thematically, it led straight into 2000 and directly to our current moment. Anxious with ruminations on war and death and technology and love but celebratory in its hopefulness and joy, the album explodes with ideas and fulfills all its promise. The production is ingenious, pristine, unprecedented, maxing out on humongous drums and alien sounds but never sacrificing warmth or subtlety. And the songwriting is Wayne Coyne at his best—allegorical, universal, but also heartbreakingly detailed and emotive.

If you haven’t discovered the wonders of The Soft Bulletin, you owe it to yourself. It’s never too late to discover a timeless classic. And if you’ve never been to a Flaming Lips concert, there’s no way to explain what you’re missing. You just have to be there.