King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard: ‘Flight b741’ Review
Album artwork for Flight b741
Another year, another album by the Australian collective King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.
Last year I reviewed their albums PetroDragonic Apocalypse, and The Silver Cord, both being in the metal and electronic genres respectively. They were also companion pieces that shared a lot of the same musical and lyrical themes which left us with the following question, where would the band go next? Why, become a classic rock act of course. Welcome on board and make yourself comfortable as the band takes you on a trip with their latest titled Flight b741.
In classic King Gizzard fashion, they never like to stay in one lane so in a complete 180 from the conceptual leanings of last year’s albums, the band strips everything back and focus on just having fun in the studio while embracing the sounds of bands like The Rolling Stones, Steve Miller Band and The Allman Brothers Band. To quote frontman Stu Mackenzie; “We’re having a lot of fun, but we’re often singing about some pretty heavy shit,” where he further adds “and probably hitting on some deeper, more universal themes than usual. It’s not a sci-fi record, it’s about life and stuff. But the record is like a really fun weekend with your mates, you know? Like, proper fun”
The album gets its foot off the ground with Mirage City. After a rocking start, the song eventually settles into a more mellow groove where in one of the album’s main “gimmicks”, the band members get to take turns doing lead vocals. Stu Mackenzie, the versatile Ambrose-Kenny Smith and guitarist Joey Walker sing about someone who wants to escape from their troubled life at home and head to the titular city. In a cruel twist of fate though, it doesn’t exist and is merely a place the main character imagined as a coping mechanism. Lovely vocal harmonies and guitar work ensue. As the main character realizes that escaping from your problems entirely would only make things more complicated, the song wraps itself up nicely with an energetic climax where the harmonica and guitars get to really shine.
Antarctica continues the mellow grooviness with more prominent keys and group vocals. This song also marks the first time we get lead vocals from bassist Lucas Harwood outside of his work with Heavy Moss. In stark contrast to its warm sound the song details someone wanting to embrace the cold and live in the titular continent while comparing themselves to a polar bear.
My personal favourite song is Raw Feel. Rocking a 7/4 groove, the band members are completely in their element here as they talk about the lengths people are willing to go to feel great about themselves. The melodies here might be the catchiest of the whole album. The song also knows how to keep things interesting by throwing in vocal layers during refrains, hand percussion and a driving acoustic guitar in the Stu-led bridge. It all culminates in the band finding common ground with someone as they joyously sing “raw feel for you, raw feel for me, raw feel for everyone”.
A count off leads into the infectious boogie that is Field of Vision. Initially starting with a 11/4 riff, the song shifts to a straight-forward 4/4 groove as the band talks about their experiences on the road as a touring act and how with everything going against them, they persist and continue doing what they love. The song takes a couple of twists and turns from there, whether it would be a tuneful guitar solo or the hypnotic and dreamy section right before the song brings back its 11/4 riff one last time for the outro as Joey proudly declares that he’s “being a silly billy”. Now that’s prog!
Unison vocals open up the next song, the raucous Hog Calling Contest. The band speeds things up considerably here and almost borders on bluegrass. The bass work gets to really shine here especially courtesy of Joey. If it wasn’t obvious from the title, this is a song about pigs. Specifically pig metaphors. Lots of them. Through it all we get to hear Ambrose sing his ass off at one point and guitarist Cook Craig providing a fun ending verse while the band wreaks havoc in the background. This is a song I can absolutely see becoming a staple in the band’s live sets from here on out.
Lead single Le Risque immediately gets the listener hooked thanks to its thumping bassline. The song is all about taking risks and making the most of your mundane life. Every member gets to shine here, more specifically the drummer Michael Cavanaugh as he gets to take lead vocal duties for the first time in the band’s career.
The title track is the closest the album gets to a pure pop song sonically. Evoking strong vibes of The Doobie Brothers and The Beatles, the band smoothly talks about wanting to keep a strong connection with someone they hold dear, all told through the lens of the metaphorical plane.
A drum fill transitions into Sad Pilot. A pretty catchy if rather standard song this far into the album. Lyrically it details the troubles of a pilot with PTSD who tries to overcome his mental and relationship struggles by moving forward and leaving his past behind.
With no time to breathe, Rats in the Sky comes in all jolly and playful. It focuses on a literal rat who proves his naysayers wrong by finding a way up in the clouds and live among the birds.The song packs in a lot of ideas into its short three minute runtime and that does unfortunately leave it feeling undercooked as a result but as is, it’s still a nice little romp.
The album concludes with its longest song at nearly eight minutes, Daily Blues. It goes through four distinct sections and each one more exhilarating than the last. All the while the band talks about people of opposing sides trying to find a way to unite and settle their differences through the power of love. As the song shifts tempos throughout and the vocals soar, we are eventually brought down to the ground as a modulated voice tells us; “Thanks for flying, we’ve been your pilots: Lukey, Joe, Cookie, Amby, Cavs, Stuey. We couldn’t tell ya what the local time is, but the weather’s fine out. Get on your horse and ride out”. The plane departs, a horse neighs and thus the flight is over.
Flight b741 is yet another testament to this band’s restless spirit and imagination. The material here is some of the most fun and invigorating they’ve ever sounded in years. After many albums with songwriting influenced by jamming, it’s refreshing to hear that they haven’t lost their knack for making compact tunes that can stand toe to toe with anything in their wide discography. There is already news of another album in the works according to Stu, because of course it is, they are King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard after all. While that is happening though, let us cherish how we’re 26 albums into their discography and they have yet to stagnate, and are continually churning out high-quality works like this one. God bless these Australian weirdos.
