King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flight b741

Only three things are inevitable in life: death, taxes, and yet another album from tireless Aussie psych-lords King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Newest release ‘Flight b741’ is their 26th, and just as with every release from the six-piece is entirely unpredictable – after a broad arc of increasingly theatrical albums, ‘Flight b741’ instead charts a course back to their origins, with a series of no-nonsense riffs played with the gusto of classic rock and the energy of garage punk. There are some all-time moments for the band, like the T.Rex guitar line on ‘Field of Vision’, or the solid groove of ‘Antarctica’ that calls to mind ‘70s Rolling Stones, and through it all is a lively atmosphere, with the songs broken up by between-take chatter. The band still find space to push themselves, too, with drummer Michael Cavanagh’s lead vocal debut on the Deep Purple-inspired ‘Le Risque’, a choice that feels as if it could only be born from a fun environment. And that, above all else, is the guiding principle of this LP: perhaps not the album that will secure the band’s legacy, but one that reminds their cult following that the boys can play hard as well as work hard.