By Fred Spanner
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island ⭐⭐⭐
Turns out, when these psych-rock fellas aren’t busy time-travelling through genres, they’ve been schmoozing with string sections and hiring entire horn ensembles. Phantom Island is full of woodwinds, cinematic flourishes, and melodies so silky they could lubricate your nan's stairlift.
Opener “Phantom Island” kicks off with strings that sound like they were stolen from an old Bond flick. Frontman Stu still sounds like he’s being chased by demons, but now it’s demons in velvet robes.
Big shout-out to “Deadstick”, which comes strutting with funk, brass, falsetto, the lot. And “Aerodynamic” is a gliding, swirling banger that makes you want to take a bubble bath with shades on.
But let’s it’s not all high-flying brilliance. A few tracks sag in the middle to balance it out a bit.
Still, a nice album to add to your collection. It’ll be interesting to see what the die-hard fans make of it.