King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
L.W.
Release Date: Feb 25, 2021
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Neo-Prog
Record label: KGLW
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Album Review: L.W. by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
Great, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
To call King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's seventeenth album, L.W., a companion album to last year's K.G. is to undermine its ingenuity. The two records are truly siblings: unique in their aesthetic, staunchly individual, yet share the same DNA and might have lived in the same home before they were asked to "go out and explore the world." Subtitled Explorations into Microtonal Tuning Vol.
Based on rating 4.0/5
Kay Jee El Duboyoo So apparently King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released yet more music and, as predicted 4 weeks ago by yours truly, there remains very little left to say about the Aussie emperors and their magical pet reptile that hasn't been said before. L.W. is more of the same fuzzy, microtonal nonsense, pioneered on 2017's Flying Microtonal Banana and perfected (arguably) on 2020's K.G., and if you liked either of those albums then, chances are, you'll like L.W..
Based on rating 8
Further to the release of recent single 'Pleura', the ebullient Australian rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have released 'L.W.' - the band's seventeenth album and perhaps one of their most intriguing musical collections to date. Recorded remotely during lockdown last year, this barnstorming album continues the journey where its predecessor K.G left off. It also finely showcases their use of microtonal tuning, which was first seen on with their 2017 album 'Flying Microtonal Banana'.
Based on rating 8.0/10
Everything about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is governed by perpetual forward motion, from their music's relentless momentum to their frequent reinventions to their tendency to release new albums with the regularity of a Substack newsletter. But while there's a lot of joy to be had in hitching yourself to the Melbourne psych-rockers' careening locomotive, the group's recent track record suggests they could benefit from erecting some guard rails, with the honky-glam hoedown of Fishing for Fishies and the doomsday thrash of Infest the Rats' Nest veering too sharply into the silly and the sullen, respectively. Of course, the nice thing about a band this prolific is that any missteps are swiftly left in the dust and a course correction is all but inevitable, and in King Gizzard's case, not even a global pandemic can slow their roll.
Based on rating 7/10
On L.W., King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's 17th studio album, the supreme rulers of the Gizzverse answer all of their own questions and follow all of their own rules, as per usual. The prodigal psych-rock sextet have not had the outlet of touring over the last year due to COVID-19, leaving space for the band to "reset" according to a press release. The result? A frenetic exploration of apocalypse-induced madness and ecstasy, dispersed throughout 19 tracks and released as two separate albums. With electrifying tension, K.G.
'L.W.'
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