King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Gumboot Soup (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.
next up is the last album of 2017, released just under the wire, Gumboot Soup
kickin’ things off with Beginner’s Luck, a really nice song with a good groove, nice vocals, and fun lyrics. a few bands i like have done like, a weird little gambling track and its nice. great chill opener. nice track. Greenhouse Heat Death is quite a chunky track. this is a p common theme in their work, this track in particular reminds me of Planet B, which i’ve heard before diving in to this discog. the little bass riff between the chorus and the verse at the beginning of Barefoot Desert is so sick. nice track. Muddy Water is great. lyrically i like it a lot, its got a fantastic beat and drive to it, good hooks, im big on this one. Superposition kinda escaped my notice in my initial listens, kinda just drifted by, but upon closer inspection it’s really sweet and nice. the flute over the chorus is great. the lyrics at first are neat, comparing human existence to particles and suggesting a kinda of human superposition, of a larger sense of unity, and thats nice! the last bit of lyrics, kinda strange and a little offputting, which i guess matches the shift the instrumentation takes. real mixed on this track. the riffs on Down the Sink are p nice, it’s got some good shifts, and in looking up stuff about the track it’s nice to hear another take on the vocals, haha. i have a feeling that uh, in some moods this song would be sheer vibes, but at present i’m more into this song instrumentally than lyrically. man it’s kinda wild that they shift right into the Great Chain of Being, which might be the heaviest song i’ve heard from them yet. I hate to be like “guy who’s only heard Planet B: getting real Planet B vibes from this album”, but uh. feeling like this is a preview of stuff that’s gonna get explored later. normally not huge on songs this weighty but i’m always down for some deicide. i don’t expect this song will be in my likes by the time i have a review for this album together, but uh… i don’t expect that will always be true. All Is Known is a neat epilogue to one of the narratives from Polygondwaland, blended with the Flying Microtonal Banana. it’s really neat to see them blending experiments like that. I’m Sleepin’ In is such a goddamn vibe holy shit. this song’s so chill and like, an era after Robot Stop i’m so glad they sleep in. The Wheel is such a fitting end to the album and the cycle of albums, i think. i’m tempted to say that like, I’m Sleepin’ In could’ve been a better album closer, but i’m not even sure that’s true. i do like the song but it’s not amongst my faves.
faves – Beginner’s Luck, Muddy Water, I’m Sleepin’ In
dislikes –
yknow for an “unthemed” album (compared to like, microtonal album, or infinite album, or polyrhythmic album), it’s nice to see the thematic connections throughout – dreaming, aspirations, universal connections, illusions or hidden information, it’s really neat. i also think it’s a neat choice to go back and forth with song weight, rather than having a lighter half of the album and then a heavier half – i think it’s most noticable with The Great Chain of Being into The Last Oasis into All Is Known, but i can definitely see the blending elsewhere in the album. on the whole, i think this is a really neat album.
Gumboot Soup – 6/10
support the band by buying this record on Bandcamp
first: Willoughby’s Beach | previous: Polygondwanaland | next: Fishing For Fishies
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