I am Kyle's self-indulgence

After Stephen Colbert had The Flaming Lips on his show Wednesday night, ColbertNation.com began streaming the band's new album in its entirety. It will be there until Monday.

I'm trying to reserve my praise just a little bit this time around. It seems like when I've heard a new album by a beloved artist in the past I've been a little overexuberant about it at first, and then later realized it's not quite as good as I thought.

I think this one's going to endure as a highlight of the Lips' career, though, mostly because it is so much different from what they've been doing for the last decade.

Here are a few thing I've noticed about it so far.

First of all, it's loud. Really loud. It's loud and weird and chaotic and totally un-self-conscious, which I love.

It's also a lot less poppy than any of their previous three albums. The band's catchy melodies have been replaced by loose noise jams with heavy drum and guitar effects broken up by stretches of quiet atmospheric pieces.

Wayne's voice is less prominent than it has ever been before. He often sings at a flat tone, and his vocals are pushed to the back of the mix, and often distorted.

This is an album that must be listened to in its entirety. It has a distinct sound of its own, and I don't think most of the songs would work nearly as well on their own. It's hard to imagine anyone paying $0.99 on iTunes for "The Ego's Last Stand" or "I Can Be A Frog" (on which Karen O literally phones in her contribution) just because they like those songs. Put within the context of the album, though, these tracks are a lot of fun to listen to.

The best moments on the album, though, are when the band just totally cuts loose in noisy psychedelic freak-out mode, most notably on "Worm Mountain," which features the heaviest drums heard on a Lips album in years. This will be fun one to see live.

Go have a listen on ColbertNation.com to experience the album for yourself. The website doesn't provide any information on song titles, so here's a track list to help you out.

01. Convinced Of The Hex
02. The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine
03. Evil
04. Aquarius Sabotage
05. See The Leaves
06. If
07. Gemini Syringes
08. Your Bats
09. Powerless
10. The Ego’s Last Stand
11. I Can Be A Frog
12. Sagittarius Silver Announcement
13. Worm Mountain
14. Scorpio Sword
15. The Impulse
16. Silver Trembling Hands
17. Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
18. Watching The Planets