I am Kyle's self-indulgence

Details about the new Flaming Lips album have been gradually trickling out. We now know it is definitely a double album, it will be titled Embryonic, and the cover will be this:

Interestingly, this has me more exited than anything I've read about it up to now. Wayne Coyne takes a very hands-on approach to the band's album artwork (along with George Salisbury), which I think telegraphs his attitude about the album, including its overall mood and style, and how similar or different it is from what the band has done previously.

To illustrate, here we have the covers for Transmissions From The Satellite Heart and Clouds Taste Metallic:

These two were released during the Ronald Jones and Steven Drozd phase of the band, and are characterized by dense noise-rock built around Jones' frenetic guitar effects and Drozd's heavy drumming. The artwork for these albums is appropriately rough and homemade-looking.

After Ronald Jones left the band, The Flaming Lips began their period of multi-channel musical experimentation, culminating in the infamous four-CD-simultaenous-play album Zaireeka.

With Steven Drozd now playing the part of multi-instrumentalist, the music was now much less traditionally rock-oriented and more of an in-studio orchestration of diverse elements. The band took this approach to a more consumer-friendly format in The Soft Bulletin. The common elements to both albums are reflected in the smoother presentation of the covers, the bold color separations, and the circular bursts, hinting at the layers of orchestrated sound:

In many ways the band's next two albums continue in a similar vein (the lineup in the studio remained unchanged during this time), but I think there are some small differences. The sound on Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and At War With The Mystics is brighter, more pop-oriented, and a little more bombastic. For the covers for the albums and all of the singles, Wayne used his original paintings:

So what does the artwork for Embryonic tell me?

Well, for one thing, it's something different. Wayne has mentioned in interviews that this new album is going to have a different sound to it, but he always says that. His album artwork, though, telegraphs a major change in direction. I hope this is true. The image also tells me the album is going to be more psychedelic than their recent work, and more boldly experimental. Given that it's a double album (and given Wayne's own comments about that decision), I also think it's going to be all over the place.

I can't wait.