It’s always great to see what King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard has in store for us. Their 26th studio release, yes, you heard right fellow Gizzards, their 26th album entitled Flight b741 was based on jam sessions and seeing the band walking into a Bluesier rock approach which was similar to their 2019 release Fishing for Fishes.
Yes, they’re known for some of their heavier material, but it’s time to remove those cloaks and go into something fun that’ll get you through the rest of the summer.
Take for example ‘Field of Vision’, a foot-stomping glam-blues rocker, combining the revved-up engines between Mott the Hoople, Slade, Wings’ Venus and Mars-era, and Free’s ‘All Right Now’ it’s soon going to be a fan favourite with its call-and-response vocal lines and revved-up riffs that’s blaring towards harmonica heaven! ‘Mirage City’ kicks the doors down with blaring guitar lines, saying to their fellow comrades, “Come on in and join the fun”.
Not only there’s some metallic roots, but touches of the singer-songwriting arrangements with its bottleneck guitar lines, singing around the campfire, in the middle of the hot evening in the middle of Melbourne while laying down those Zeppelin-sque grooves to set course by spreading the gospel across the ‘Antarctica’. The song ‘Raw Feel’ has some high-rising power, nods to The Guess Who’s ‘Share the Land’, and beautiful harmonising vocals in the chorus.
The Gizzards know how to complete a song, right down to the bone. They’re not just fooling around, they get down to business when it comes to the source material, and showing how much support they have with each other. And once we get into the race-track for the ‘Hog Calling Contest’ to start, that’s where the real fun begins!
Beginning with a country-rockabilly tempo, followed by this Tom and Jerry cartoon chase the rhythm section does, the band are going hog wild on this bad boy. Then it segues into bass pumping attitude with ‘Le Risque’. Here, the Gizzards are returning to their prog-rock roots once more with a bluesy-shuffle.
You can hear the Canned Heat approach in the intro which speaks of ‘On the Road Again’ before going into this Steely Dan homage, the band channels from their Can’t Buy a Thrill years, honouring Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, and the Grateful Dead’s ‘U.S. Blues’ rolled into one. That’s quite a mixture thrown into the mix the band delve into.
Then its off to the ball by dancing the night away on the title-track where they fly into the clear blue sky with some mellotron midsection, taking you into this prog-psychedelic pop territory before landing back down to earth with some sunshine bliss and returning back to nature with Baxter’s textures once more by greeting the ‘Sad Pilot’ face to face.
Meanwhile, it’s back to the ‘70s Glam Rock platform boots with a McCartney-sque vibe and E.L.O approach to witness the ‘Rats in the Sky’ before ending on a high note with a hard rock finale for the ‘Daily Blues’ texture of Zeppelin’s fourth album which is a continuation of ‘When the Levee Breaks’ have left off, a-la T. Rex style from the Electric Warrior years with Man’s Deke Leonard in the control boards adding in some killer brainstorming ideas.
The Gizzards have never done me wrong. Flight b741 is an album that’s ready for launch, and preparing itself to land on your door step so you can party like there’s no tomorrow.
