King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland '2017

Tracks list

Like the rest of their albums released in 2017, King Gizzard & the Lizard
Wizard's fourth album of the year has a gimmick. This time it's not musical,
though. The stunt here is that it's the world's first public domain album, given
away free by the band and legal to sell by anyone who feels like pressing it up.
After an album made with microtonal instruments, a synth prog epic, and a
trip-hop jazz collaboration with Mild High Club, Polygondwanaland sounds like a
consolidation of everything the band has done up until now, chewed up and spit
back put in large and small chunks of psychedelic rock. The first song alone,
the ten-minute-long "Crumbling Castle," employs microtonal guitars, layers in
synths, sounds like space prog, has laid back jazz interludes and heavy metal
breakdowns, and delivers all the trippy punch of their early work. After all the
experiments and tricks, it almost sounds like the band is playing it safe, even
if the song is a rampaging ball of barely controlled energy. They really aren't,
though. Instead, they are delivering a record that plays to their strengths as
songwriters and musicians instead of distracting people with some flashy idea.
It's straight -- or as straight as possible -- King Gizzard, and at this stage
of their career, that's a welcome development. Hearing them incorporate all the
different sonic flourishes they've employed in the past in pursuit of good songs
and not some higher concept means the album may slip past unnoticed, but it will
sound great to anyone not scared off by the lack of theatrics. Tracks like the
spookily restrained "Searching," the rampaging "The Fourth Colour," the tribal
"The Castle in the Air," or the thrumming title track are the work of a band in
full command of their process and results. Their fourth album of 2017 may not be
their most exciting of the year, but it is their strongest and shows that King
Gizzard don't need any bells and whistles to make a great psychedelic splash.

1.01 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Crumbling Castle (10:44)
1.02 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland (3:33)
1.03 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The Castle in the Air (2:48)
1.04 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet
(3:34)
1.05 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Inner Cell (3:56)
1.06 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Loyalty (3:39)
1.07 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Horology (2:52)
1.08 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Tetrachromacy (3:31)
1.09 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Searching… (3:04)
1.10 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The Fourth Colour (6:12)

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