The Flaming Lips seemed too weird to ever be successful and were, ultimately, too good for the general public to ignore. With their wild psychedelic experimentations and sweet, honest pop songs, The Flaming Lips are one of the greatest indie-rock bands of all time.

I’ve combed through the group’s ever-expanding discography, and these are the best 10 songs by The Flaming Lips.

Greatest 10 Songs by The Flaming Lips

10. “Rainin’ Babies”

The Flaming Lips looked, early on, destined to be one of the great and bizarre cult psych-rock bands of the U.S.A. Just like The Butthole Surfers, the group was mostly known for its love of all things weirds, and similarly they, eventually managed to ride those eccentricities toward succes. “Rainin’ Babies,” from “In the Priest Driven Ambulance” with its darkly hallucinatory religious imagery, was the first proof of the band’s eventual greatness.

9. “Silver Trembling Hands”

The secret that The Flaming Lips try to keep hidden in plain sight is that they’re hippies who will gladly turn up for a hard day’s paid work. It’s one of the reasons why the group has released so much material. It’s also why many of these songs are both strange and palatable to regular audiences. “Silver Trembling Hands”, with its retro cowboy movie production and paranoid lyrics, was a hit with fans in 2009.

8. “Waitin’ for a Superman”

The Flaming Lips took one massive leap forward with 1999’s album “The Soft Bulletin.” Not only had the group managed to find a way to blend its eccentricities with the group’s tendency to create lush, melancholy-filled sound sculptures, but songs like “Waitin’ for a Superman” were tighter than they’d ever been. “Waitin’ for a Superman” is one of the great pop songs about living through disastrous times.

7. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”

The Flaming Lips became masters of a sound that they studied for decades. By the 2000s, they could produce it at will. And with Wayne Coyne choosing honesty over cleverness, they could nearly always make it interesting. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” with its manic-folk approach asks just how much control we have over ourselves. It’s one of band’s best tracks.

6. “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell”

It’s rather ironic that for a band that recorded so much, and such strange material, The Flaming Lips’s fate will be to be primarily remembered for one album. Fortunately, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” is a great album. On no other release has the band been as consistent or have Wayne Coyne’s vocals worked quite as well. “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” sees the band dip into its familiar lysergic pop-rock, but with a warmth they’ve found it hard to capture on other releases.

5. “She Don’t Use Jelly”

It must’ve felt awfully strange when The Flaming Lips scored a genuine hit single with “She Don’t Use a Jelly,” or when they performed this on the Beverly Hills 90210 television show. It feels even weirder that this would not be the effort of a one-hit wonder, but the start to an impressive run of challenging, terrific records.

4. “Do You Realize??”

The 1960s hippies, eventually, let everyone down, including themselves. The Flaming Lips, on the other hand, represented hippie ideals at their best and presented to a generation that had only encountered them through documentaries. Inventive, realistic and wonderfully optimistic, “Do You Realize??” was an anthem to living for the moment and one of the band’s finest tunes.

3. “Race for the Prize”

It may have been a calculated effort, but Wayne Coyne had spent years trying to get The Flaming Lips to be thought of as both fun and serious by the record-buying public. He came closest with the warm dream pop of “Race for the Prize.” The song featured an uncharacteristically clean production. This eventually opened numerous doors for the band.

2. “Turn It On”

While 1993’s “She Doesn’t Use Jelly” proved to be the big hit, longtime fans are quick to point out the superiority of “Turn It On.” An earnest, funny, and intense tune utilising the alt-rock tactics popular at the time, this anthem to the weirdos of all the world is one of the greatest songs of the 1990s.

1. “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1”

Concept albums suit bands like The Flaming Lips. On “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” the group managed to reel in the group’s experimental side and blend those ideas with an emotional message and strong storytelling. Part 1 of the title song sees the titular character battle her disease, metamorphosed as evil robots. It’s The Flaming Lips at their most daring and tender. This is the shining moment of The Flaming Lips.