Album Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: 'Phantom Island'

The Gist of It

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, the sound-shifting chameleon of a band from Australia, have delivered another anomaly to their music catalog with Phantom Island. A non-frenetic, non-surf-garage, non-jazz-fusion-metal, non-folk album, Phantom Island is a time-traveling, superannuated soft-rock opera rocket ship excursion to a chilling seventies soundscape that might challenge the sturdiest of fans.

My Normative Transparency

My daughter and I were having an in-depth discussion about world events and protests. Fortunately, she is at an age where she can absorb tremendous amounts of information, gather with other like-minded people, and be heavily involved because all of the issues affect her current and future life.

I am amazed at how much she knows. At her age, I still considered myself a boy, was lost in my own world and needs, and was about a month from the death of my mom. Y2K was looming, but I had very few big-world worries. Her generation is fighting a corrupt and oppressive government, and my generation rioted over the annual spring change to Daylight Saving Time and the loss of an hour of drinking in the bars. In fact, it wasn’t until the last few years that I learned evil people do exist.

I accept my ignorance. My life until my forties was about dealing with early life traumas, forgiving people, and experiencing the intimacy of being a family man. Watching Cirus and Syd, my children, grow helped me better myself, and thankfully, they are still doing so. Because we no longer live together, the life lessons have broadened beyond personal and interpersonal relationships and have moved into global concerns.

Because Cirus and I have had different experiences and because I want her to be a compassionate human being, I remind her that everyone is not as knowledgeable as she is. People are in their own time and mental space. Some are dealing with their own lives and are incapable of moving beyond that, an excuse I hope most people do not lean too much on. Realizing this for my life, I am now aware of concepts and ideas I missed.

Regarding King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and My Flavor in 2016

I apologize if it comes off that I am trivializing current events. My intention is to regularly bring it into conversation so people think about them. However, I must also complete my task to review King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Phantom Island. The connection I am making is that I was not in the right place when friends tried to turn me on to the band years ago.

Every so often, I go through a music-listening funk. Nothing hits. So, back in 2016, I asked a couple of friends for a band I should check out. Both said, “King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.” However, neither of them gave me any suggestions as to where I should start or shared any background on the band. I wish I could tell you what album I chose, but I can’t because I did not connect with it.

Around that time, Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool was released. The music, along with and especially with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s “Present Tense” (“This dance is like a weapon of self-defense against the present tense”) and “The Numbers” (“One day at a time”) [still two of my all-time favorite versions and songs], spoke directly to me, to the emotions I was incapable of talking about. I fell in love with the album and the band members’ situations surrounding it; nothing else could compete. In fact, I went on to write a short story collection, AMSP, based on it.

Now

Phantom Island is the twenty-seventh album from a band that only formed 15 years ago. I’ve been told that you shouldn’t have to explain artists or their art; it doesn’t hit the mark if you have to. However, I know that is not true; giving me direction helps me absorb the material. I worry that if someone listens to this album without any of the band’s background, they might love it, then go back to the band’s other material and be lost entirely. (I have also been told that people do not like to do research on their own.) Or vice versa. They might find the sound of this album outside of their comfort zone, denying them the proper understanding of the band.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is everything I love about talented musicians and artists who continually push to challenge themselves. They have played everything from surf music/garage rock to psychedelic/progressive rock to jazz fusion, folk-inspired, mainstream, hard rock, heavy metal, and now seventies soft rock with an orchestra. On paper, they look like a perfect match for me. However, without doing the research, I don’t know that I would have been able to appreciate what they are doing.

Is this to say that I do not love Phantom Island? Absolutely not. There is so much to like about this album: the connectivity, the humor, the sound, the layers, the lyrics, and the length of it. It’s brilliant. Yet, upon my first listening, I wasn’t sure if it would be something I was interested in. That catchy melody. Soft sound. Guitar work that reminded me of the Jackson 5. Yes, there was some nostalgia, but . . . I did not understand what was happening. I thought, Where did this come from? Aren’t they supposed to be a heavy metal/hard rock band?

The Album

Phantom Island uses one of my least favorite music genres to create everything I love in an album. The keys and strings intro sets the dramatic mood. Then, the horns add layers. Lyrics that I can hear. More raining piano. Big sounds. Transitions. Each song goes perfectly into the next. I hear a Broadway musical. A study in music history. I hear a new audience finding this eclectic band.

Final Thought:

I apologize to the band. Although there are many bands in the world, and I cannot be expected to know each one, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is one I should have been listening to. Yet, I look at it like this: Now, I have 26 other albums to delve into. That should cover me when I am struggling to find something interesting to listen to.

Favorite songs: “Lonely Cosmos,” “Eternal Return,” and “Aerodynamic”

5 out of 5 (because they made me love that soft-rock sound)