Released: 2013

Genres: Psychedelic Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Garage Rock, Acid Rock, Raga Rock, Krautrock

The Musiquarium’s Float Along – Fill Your Lungs Review Score: 8 out of 10

On their third album and second of 2013, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard change up their sound yet again, this time going in a more psychedelic direction that feels very much like you’ve travelled back in time to the Summer of Love.

Opening track Head On/Pill is a 16 minute trip of a song, accompanied by sitars, increasing tempos and an overall sense of feeling like you’ve just taken too many psychedelics — it’s easily the band’s best and most engaging composition yet. A song like I’m Not a Man Unless I Have a Woman sounds like some long lost sixties pop single that you’d stumble upon on an album like Nuggets. The title track has droning sitars and an overall sense of euphoria and carefree bliss. All of the songs are written by Stu Mackenzie, except for the solo Cook Craig composition, Pop in My Step, and the Ambrose Kenny-Smith co-write, Let Me Mend the Past.

Like fellow Australian rock band Tame Impala, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s retro sound doesn’t feel like some cheap cosplay, the way it did for previous bands like Jet, Wolfmother and Airbourne (all coincidentally Australian too), bands that just imitated something that came before, without doing anything fresh — instead, this feels genuine, organic and exploratory. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs is a huge upgrade in quality from the band’s first two albums and the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s first essential album.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Discogs.

Back to the 2013 Album Reviews Guide or the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard