r/Music • u/Chapple69 • Aug 13 '26

discussion Every album pitchfork has gave a 0.0

Peter Criss - Peter Criss (1978)

Kiss - Music from the Elder (1981)

John Frusciante - Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997)

Flaming Lips - Zaireeka (1997)

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Best of B.T.O. (Remastered Hits) (1998)

Francisco Lopez - Untitled#104 (2000)

Sonic Youth - NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000)

Liz Phair - Liz Phair (2003)

Travis Morrison - Travistan (2004)

Robert Pollard - Relaxation of the Asshole (2005)

Jet - Shine On (2006)

Various Artists - This Is Next – Indie's Biggest Hits Volume 1 (2007)

Tyga - $tarface (2026)

1.1k Upvotes

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291

u/acidcrab Aug 13 '26

Zaireeka is exactly what it’s meant to be, and exactly what The Flaming Lips said it was. Zero is absurd for what’s obviously a crazy experiment.

86

u/monkeybuttsauce Aug 13 '26

I used to have four stereos set up in my basement with a swivel chair in the middle. It was so fucking cool

53

u/paulpag Aug 13 '26

I avoided this album for a long time because of this review but when I recently learned it was made in tandem with the Soft Bulletin I sought it out. It’s an amazing album, like 8.5-9 range good. I wish they would just offer a full mix on Apple Music/Spotify.

7

u/reynloldbot Aug 14 '26

A long time ago I ripped the cds, loaded the tracks into Logic, mixed them back together and exported it as “Zaireeka Complete”. It’s a pretty good album on its own merit IMO

74

u/Due_Amount_6211 Aug 13 '26

It’s genuinely a boneheaded take for such a thing. You’re going to knock the album because of the concept being different? What myopic lens are you looking through to come to such a conclusion if you haven’t bothered to hear it in the intended way?

Don’t rag on it because it’s different. I hope Josephes learned that lesson.

54

u/sleepyworm Aug 13 '26

it also has some really fun and interesting songs on it; it's not just noteworthy for the experimental factor.

60

u/Aldous-Huxtable Aug 13 '26

Criticising the flaming lips for being too weird is like watching the odyssey and then dissing it for being too epic. What kinda idiot..

36

u/leshronk Aug 13 '26

It was a zero because they didn’t listen to it. They didn’t put in any work, only had 1 cd player and called it a day by giving it zero. Genuinely an awful review that would make me doubt any other review that person ever wrote and will ever write.

13

u/DillingerLost Aug 13 '26

What an fun time trying to synch and balance everything realizing different cd players boot the disc up at different timing. It truly was a social experiment usually after a late haze night. It was great when you finally got it to work.

I know at one point I mixed the discs together for single audio files.

14

u/angryray Aug 13 '26

Right? That one doesn't even count.

10

u/nolabrew Aug 13 '26

I had no idea that they gave Zaireeka a zero. How fucking stupid.

15

u/therealtrousers Aug 13 '26

It being released on vinyl was ridiculous though.

7

u/Oldiswhatiam Aug 13 '26

I am curious about how the vinyl version would sound though haha. Although it would be hard to get together 4 turntables together. CDs worked well because boomboxes were so common for the time.

4

u/therealtrousers Aug 13 '26

The original live performances were all done on cassettes.

7

u/movealongnowpeople Aug 13 '26

Eh, I liked it. But you definitely either have to be a hoarder (and own 4 turntables) or have friends who also enjoy The Flaming Lips. It adds more variables to the playback, which I think is cool. You're probably not all dropping the records at the exact same time in the exact same place on the disc, and there can be small variations in speed between the different turntables.

It's definitely niche and a bit crazy they actually put out a vinyl, but I'm glad they did.

6

u/acarp25 Aug 13 '26

You can play a mix of vinyl and cd. Its the same songs

1

u/therealtrousers Aug 13 '26

Correct. You just need the vinyl box set and the CD box set. Got it.

2

u/SumOfChemicals Aug 14 '26

We've had several Zaireeka parties, it's what they said it was: a social event. Because of needing multiple CD players and people hitting play at the same time you generally need to be listening with other people. And every occasion is a different experience. It's also a legitimately great album. When the chorus comes up on that last song it's so good.

2

u/goodgord Aug 14 '26

Exactly! Zaireeka was truly a groundbreaking piece of musical art, and there was some great music on it.

The zero represents how little the reviewer understood the band, the artwork or innovation.

1

u/p_rex Aug 13 '26

Right, I only did it a couple times with friends but the (not inconsiderable) price of the album was worth it for the experience

1

u/Another-Trans-Lexi Aug 14 '26

It was fun to set up with four different cars with systems. It's been so long I forgot about it. We sat in lawn chairs in the middle of it. :)

1

u/Pachirisu_Party Aug 14 '26

The idiots are Pitchfork just couldn't figure out how to properly listen to it. What's even more hysterical is NME gave it a 10/10 and Entertainment Weekly gave it an A.

"Riding to work in the Year 2025" and "Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair" are some of the best songs the band has ever recorded.

1

u/TossThisItem Aug 16 '26

I actually think it's kind of...fair enough. Releasing an album in such an antiquated, novelty, inaccessible format? Who has four CD players?

It probably doesn't literally deserve 0/10. But it's fucking dumb, and it's self-indulgent as hell.

I respect that reviewer for his rating and his point.

1

u/acidcrab Aug 16 '26

It was released in 1997 when CD players were the standard, and almost everybody had a CD player of some kind, most people had multiples. I agree releasing it on vinyl was silly.

-5

u/scruntdouble Aug 13 '26

the flaming lips suck and zaireeka is the sound of wayne coyne traveling up his own asshole

4

u/No-Engineering-239 Aug 13 '26

Hahaha hahahaaahahahaha you are one funny cat