I am Kyle's self-indulgence

The Flaming Lips have given out a free EP of three tracks from their upcoming album to people who have ordered tickets to their upcoming tour. The Internet being what it is, those songs are now available to the rest of us through *ahem* other means (via a discussion thread on the band's new official site's message board, no less).

Anyway, I gave the tracks a listen and thought I'd write down my initial impressions.

Convinced of the Hex opens up with some chaotic bleeps and feedback, gradually settling into a steady rhythm of heavy drums and distorted instruments. I like it. I'm not sure I like Wayne's flat speech-singing or his repetition of "That's the difference between us" over and over again. Everything else about the track is very good. It's easily the best of these three songs.

The Impulse is much more low-key, with slow synth-sounds and a vocal track that is distorted to the point that it's barely recognizable as a human voice, much less comprehensible.

Silver Trembling Hands is the most recognizable as a Flaming Lips song. It's more pop-oriented and sounds a bit like "Up Above the Daily Hum or one of their other Yoshimi-era B-sides. The vocals are not nearly as distorted here, but they're still pushed to the background.

Taken together, these songs sound less pop-oriented and more spacey and atmospheric than the band's usual album material. It's not a completely different direction for the band, but it's definitely more like the stuff that they've left off albums in the past, which is to say that they take more risks. That's a good thing. One complaint fans had about their last album was that some of the B-sides were better than any of the album tracks.