Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on July 16, 2002, by Warner Bros. Records. The album saw the band pursue a more electronic direction than previous efforts, incorporating acoustic guitars and rhythms influenced by hip hop and Top 40 music. The album was well-received critically and commercially, helping the band break into popularity, and was adapted into a musical in 2012.<ref name="Find Articles">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, the band announced a 20th anniversary box set version of the album and that they would perform the album in full twice in early 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Music and lyrics

The lyrics of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots concern a diverse array of subject matter, mostly melancholy ponderings about love, mortality, artificial emotion, pacifism, and deception, while telling the story of Yoshimi's battle. The title character is inspired by musician Yoshimi P-We of Boredoms/OOIOO, following a comment in the Flaming Lips studio that her unusual singing style sounds like she is battling monsters. Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne added 'pink'.<ref name="sxD50" /> P-We also performs on the album. Some listeners consider Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots to be a concept album; however, the story is debated, as it is only directly apparent in the first four tracks. Despite the story-type title and science fiction themes, Coyne has made it clear that Yoshimi is not intended to be a concept album.<ref name="No Concept" />

The vocal melody of track one, "Fight Test", echoes Cat Stevens's "Father and Son". Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, is receiving royalties following a relatively uncontentious settlement. Coyne has claimed that he was unaware of the songs' similarities until producer Dave Fridmann pointed them out.<ref name="Billboard" /> This claim, however, is contradicted by his statement to Rolling Stone magazine: "I know 'Father and Son' and I knew there would be a little bit of comparison. 'Fight Test' is not a reference necessarily to the ideas of 'Father and Son', but definitely a reference to the cadence, the melody, and chord progression. I think it's such a great arrangement of chords and melody".<ref name="Fight Club" />

The final track, "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)", won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Flaming Lips also won the same award for "The Wizard Turns On...", taken from At War with the Mystics, in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The title of the fifth track, "In the Morning of the Magicians", is a reference to the book The Morning of the Magicians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Release

Commercial performance

In recent years,Template:When Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots has had a bigger commercial impactTemplate:Specify than the band's 1999 breakthrough album The Soft Bulletin, and became their first gold-certified release in April 2006.<ref name="RIAA" /> As of 2009, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots has sold 570,000 copies in United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.<ref name="2zv59" />

Critical reception

Template:Music ratings Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots received widespread acclaim from critics.<ref name="MC" /> On Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Calling the album "as strange as it is wonderful", Billboard nonetheless noted that "beneath the sunny, computer-generated atmospherics and the campy veneer of talk about gladiator-style clashes between man and machines with emotions, Yoshimi is actually a somber rumination on love and survival in an unfathomable world."<ref name="Billboard Review" /> Tom Moon of Rolling Stone praised the album's "ambitious" production,<ref name="Moon Review" /> while Fortune magazine called it "a lush and haunting electronic symphony."<ref name="Fortune" /> Uncut declared that "even by their standards, Yoshimi is astonishing."<ref name="Uncut" /> Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a three-star honorable mention rating,<ref name="Christgau" /> indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure".<ref name="Christgau2" /> Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots appeared in the best-albums-of-the-decade lists of several music publications, such as Rolling Stone (#27) and Uncut (#11), with Uncut also declaring it the greatest album released in the magazine's lifetime. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref name="woRzV" />

Musical

In 2007, it was announced that the album would be made into a Broadway musical by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and director Des McAnuff.<ref name="Broadway" /><ref name="EW musical" /> Frontman Wayne Coyne said of the plot: Template:Cquote

Des McAnuff stated that Aaron Sorkin exited the project after it became clear the musical would be sung-through.<ref name="LA Times" /> The musical includes existing songs from the album, as well as two other Flaming Lips albums, The Soft Bulletin and At War with the Mystics.<ref name="Rolling Stone" /> The show received its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in November 2012, starring Kimiko Glenn as Yoshimi Yasukawa, Paul Nolan as Ben Nickel, Nik Walker as Booker, Pearl Sun as Mrs. Yasukawa, John Haggerty as Mr. Yasukawa and Tom Hewitt as Dr. Petersen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personnel

The Flaming Lips

• Wayne Coyne – songwriting, vocals, guitars, cover paintings, mixing, production
• Steven Drozd – songwriting, drums, guitars, keyboards, electronics, bass, vocals, mixing, production
• Michael Ivins – songwriting, bass, keyboards, backing vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering

Additional personnel

• Yoshimi P-We – vocalization
• Dave Fridmann – additional songwriting, production, mixing, programming, engineering, mastering
• Scott Booker – production
• Trent Bell – additional tracking
• Andy Taub – additional tracking
• George Salisbury – design and layout

Charts

Weekly charts

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Weekly chart performance for Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Chart (2002–2004)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)<ref>Template:Cite Ryan</ref>	62

Chart (2024)	Peak position
Hungarian Physical Albums (MAHASZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	21

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Chart (2003)	Position
UK Albums (OCC)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	151