King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Quarters! (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.
Quarters! is KGLW’s next album, released in May 2015, and is 4 songs that are each 10:10 songs, which will be p interesting!
aighty. i really enjoyed the jazzy opener – the drums in that first section of the song fucking rocked. i keep going back and forth on the vocal style used. sometimes it grates on me a little and sometimes i really get in the groove (~oh river!). The middle sections are nice musically, but the section between around 5:50 and around 8:10 feel just like a mellower version of the opening segment. really dug the guitar and bass in the beginnings of the closing segment. one thing i like a lot about Infinite Rise is the decision to open and close with a wooshing up sound fx, even if its kinda thrown off at the end. and i like the aimless lyrical themes here too, amongst really subdued and chill instrumentation. this track’s a nice listen. The opening of God Is In the Rhythm is really nice. i like that little guitar riff that shows up periodically but definitely at like 2:45, haha. i think the vocal style is more grating as this song develops than it was on The River tbh. Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer has some solid vibes but wasn’t super engaging.
faves –
dislikes –
so, honestly, the ten minute tracks didnt really do it for me. i enjoyed most of the actual music here, but ive historically required quite a bit of engagement to really enjoy long tracks, and while these are all nice and im glad i took the time for them, it uh, was not a quick process relative to some of their other albums. it also feels weird when like The River has clear splits in its playtime (3:10, 5:50, 8:10), and ends up making it more an aesthetic choice than a functional one from my listening experience. i dunno. i think i just have a fairly scattered listening style when it comes to stuff like this and its both easier to access and easier to talk about when you have seamless transitions and named segments like I’m In Your Mind does.
Quarters! – 4/10
next up, something very different with Paper Mache Dream Balloon!
support the band by buying this record on Bandcamp
first: Willoughby’s Beach | previous: I’m In Your Mind Fuzz | next: Paper Mache Dream Balloon
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