King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (From the Vault)
hey folks, welcome to some discography reviews. i’ve been writing music reviews for some friends in a discord server for a few years now in various forms, but i figured i’d like to get them all in a more centralized space, so here we are! this first series of reviews is a review of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s discography, starting in 2011 with Willoughby’s Beach and running right into 2021 with Butterfly 3000. this review was originally written in August 2021.
so Eyes Like the Sky was released in February 2013,and their next album, Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, was released the same year in September. geeze y’all. the pace these guys have is insane.
alright, first up is a 16 minute split track comprising more than a third of the albums runtime. nice. I love the first part of the split, the first 6 or so minutes that is Head On through a good chunk of the bridge. excellent track, with a nice slow build into some really cool licks and vocal riffs. The bridge is smooth and has some tastey bits to it, but ngl a lot of what happens in Pill ain’t really my style even as im fascinated by it. there’s a bit that’s repeated throughout pill, happening around the 7:40 minute mark and again in like minute 12 after the vocal refrains, where the vocals and one of the chords is playing in what feels like variable speeds way up in a high register while the drums and guitars are messing around way down in normal space, and its FASCINATING to be able to hold the two apart and kind of move between them and look up and down and see what they’re doing but it also frequently just sounds like a noisy disjointed siren so honestly in the end im just left feeling split about the track, haha. I’m Not a Man Unless I Have a Woman is a nice step down (which is something im really appreciating with KGLW – they are great at getting REAL loud and REAL intense and involved and then stepping into a mellower space to transition), but i think the track is unremarkable. I like God Is Calling Me Back Home, but it goes on a little long and im less interested in the sounds they explore in the last like, minute of the track. 30 Past 7 is chill but transitory. Let Me Mend the Past is like, a track that is definitely still in the process of growing on me. Love the keyboards on this one, and the distant, slightly straining vocals are real nice. Mystery Jack fucking rocks, easily my top track of the album. Pop In My Step is a nice laid back track. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs is a really chill closer, and its nice to have the title track close out the album, if feels v much like a “okay you’ve heard us explore, here’s what our thesis is” kind of moment.
faves – Head On/Pill, Mystery Jack, Let Me Mend the Past
dislikes –
overall, this was a very fun listen. a bunch of layered, psychedelic tracks and some really interesting audio experimentation. though for much of it, i listened, thought “this was nice”, and then didn’t have much more attachment. This would be an excellent album to just put on and vibe to for a while, tbh.
Float Along – Fill Your Lungs – 6/10
support the band by buying this record on Bandcamp
first: Willoughby’s Beach | previous: Eyes Like the Sky | next: Oddments
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