Australia’s most prolific and genre-defying band, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, has built a career around the unpredictable. The band has crafted one of the most colorful discographies in modern music, spanning 25 studio albums that include dense thrasher rock and their signature take on psychedelic rock. For album number 26, King Gizzard crash-lands back on earth from whatever distant cosmos they traveled to create their past releases for Flight b741.
The honed, ten-track LP has the band finding solace in exploring more conventional sonic realms that lean toward honky tonk tones and pop melodies. The band sacrifices their love for challenging sonics for soaring harmonies that accent subtle nods to Western nostalgia while filling the room with grandiose arrangements, creating a tight and consistently entertaining tracklist that still finds ways to shock and amaze.
Flight b741 may be King Gizzard’s first deep dive into country tropes, but there are some similarities to the band’s previous albums. How the band found a new sound to explore and spun it into a consistent album is no different than King Gizzard’s approach to their electronic phase on The Silver Cord. Still, you can’t help but notice how drastically different the band sounds on this record. There are noticeable surface-level changes that still harken back to the band’s rock roots, minus the psychedelia. Still, their songwriting and how they craft these songs really separate Flight b741 from the rest of King Gizzard’s discography. An underlying theme of jovialness echoes throughout the tracklist, creating an inviting and warm atmosphere despite the rugged guitar work and explosive crescendos that drive these songs.
With no lofty concept to rely on, King Gizzard was forced to rethink their approach to songwriting. The lyrics of Flight b741 needed to be as cartoonishly vibrant and urgent as the arrangements they sit behind, and just like all great heroes, King Gizzard found a way. The band uses vivid imagery and pop-leaning harmonies to reframe their lyrics to match the subtle twang of Flight b741. There are hints of folk-style storytelling on tracks like “Antarctica,” while the following track, the bright “Raw Feel,” is more reminiscent of early Brit-Pop structures. This approach may seem restrictive on paper, as King Gizzard was never one for convention, and attempting to fit their daring ambitions into tight structures could’ve been detrimental to their typical expansiveness. Miraculously, King Gizzard sounds as free as a band possibly can. The band made up for the lack of risks by writing undeniable songs with an infectious energy that could fit comfortably in Southern dive bars and intimidating rock clubs.
Don’t let all this talk about less experimentation and country music scare you. King Gizzard is not another band cashing in on the genre’s recent resurgence in pop culture. When a genre reaches a new height of popularity like Country has in the past few years, subgenres and artists who push the boundaries of said genre are inevitable. King Gizzard is leading the charge for a significant change in country music on Flight b741, meant to bring artsy melodies and traditional Western tones to the modern country scene.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard take a quick sonic pit stop at a raging Nashville honky tonk on Flight b741. The band brings in lush harmonies and lighthearted melodies to juxtapose the dark, twangy tones of the arrangement to create an album that is meant to be nothing but fun. In lieu of high flatulent concepts and complex sonics, King Gizzard created a digestible album that positions their songwriting abilities in a new light as the band fearlessly blends 60’s pop with modern country for a stellar display of their diversity and unique chemistry as a band.
