'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots', its a great album and pretty much sums up The Flaming Lips,

For earlier Flaming Lips try, erm, 'Clouds Taste Metallic' :) I think anyways.

but Soft Bulletin is the best place to start i think. Unless you want to build up to it, which is no bad thing. Yoshimi has a few crackers on it, but soft bulletin is more consistent imo.

Just get whichever you see first I guess.

then 'Yoshimi...', then work your way backwards

I love Flaming Lips but I fucking hate At War With the Mystics so caution should be taken with that one

Transmissions from the Satellite Heart! It's got She Don't Use Jelly on it FFS!!

Best thing ever. Last album was shite though, AVOID

they've consistently made impressive records

Get Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (1993), Clouds Taste Metallic (1995), and The Soft Bulletin (1999) at the same time. Then listen to them in order. Three of the best albums ever recorded.

The others are simply not as good. If you like those three albums, then Hit To Death In The Future Head (1991), In A Priest Driven Ambulance (1989) (on release over here with a bonus disc as "the day they shot a hole in the jesus egg") and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002or3) are worth getting, and if you were willing to sift through some shit, then get Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid! which is a three CD collection of the 80's albums and some live stuff and b-sides (like the batman theme tune!).

Stay well clear of the latest one though!

is by far the best place to start with the Lips.

After that, get 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots', which is pretty much the sister-album to Soft Bulletin.

If you want to go earlier (and here's a fair warning, they're a lot scrappier/less musically accomplished/poorly produced in comparison, but still loads of fun), get 'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' and 'Clouds Taste Metallic'

Those 4 are pretty much the standouts in the Flaming Lips career. Anything else you get is up to you in the spirit of investigation, but to be honest you'll find lots to like out there. 'Zaireeka' is great, but it involves owning several CD players and some friends to get right. Or some diligence with a music sequencing program.

I didn't find much wrong with it

But anyway, I'd go for Yoshimi first, then Soft Bulletin

I haven't heard any of the other albums though

i don't know much about their pre-soft bulletin stuff. treat them almost like two bands.

Yoshimi is Booooooring (apart from Do You Realize?). No tunes, too over-produced and electronic. At least At War With The Mystics had a bit of spark.

The Soft Bulletin is their masterpiece. Anyone who says otherwise is only doing it because they are indie and don't want to give the obvious answer. My personal favourite though is Clouds Taste Metallic. So underrated. Scrappy production but man, them tunes.

is the best thing they have ever done. its the best thing most bands have ever done and ever will do. but you might want to start with something else because following the soft bulletin is like following streisand

is as good a place to start as any, as it's as similar to the older stuff as it is to the more recent things - songs like Moth in the Incubator, which begins in a lovely way, but then lurches into skronky heavy-guitar-feedback (although the transition gets plastered over by strings), but then goes off in another direction altogether. It's an awesome song, and Transmissions is an awesome album.

After that, get Yoshimi and Clouds...

and then play them on 14 (yeah, count it) seperate CD players simultaneously, that shit will blow your mind!