Review Summary: Fishing For Fishies is a wonderfully fun and upbeat album that is an excellent addition to the rapidly expanding discography of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
The Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard shift their musical focus yet again for the release their 14th studio album
Fishing For Fishies. After a prolific 2017 in which they released an unprecedented five full length studio albums, followed by a 2018 which saw no albums as the band were touring for most of the year, things seemed to be very up in the air as to where King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard would go next. They had already delved into nearly every musical genre imaginable, with entire albums in the style of jazz, psychedelic rock, blues rock, progressive rock, electronica, and more. So what musical ground was left to conquer? Where could rock and roll’s most interesting band go from here?
The answer comes in
Fishing For Fishies light, upbeat, fun, and downright smile-inducing grooves. The theme of this album is “boogie”, and not just because that word is included in the titles of three of the album’s nine songs.
Fishing For Fishies is chock full of infectious and head-bobbing grooves led by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s guitarist and frontman Stu Mackenzie. Mackenzie is listed as playing 12 different instruments on the album, which along with the other six members of the band, gives the album a wide range of styles, from the feel of a group of guys having fun in their garage to a full orchestra. Slick drum beats from the band’s two drummers accompany the uptempo guitar riffs and the addition of harmonica brings toe-tapping life to the psychedelic blues tunes on songs like “Boogieman Sam”, “Plastic Boogie”, and “The Cruel Millennial.”
While
Fishing For Fishies maintains the same cheery and bouncy cadence throughout the majority of the album, it never feels monotonous or overdone. I listened to this album multiple times and keep finding myself attracted to the sheer fun of it.
Fishing For Fishies feels like a breath of fresh, clean air after the barrage of King Lizard & The Gizzard Wizard albums that came before it. It feels as though the band came in to the studio with a fresh mindset after their year of touring and wanted to make a stripped-down, blues rock album that their fans could dance to.
Fishing For Fishies isn’t all sunshine and rainbows however, specifically the last two songs on the album “Acarine” and “Cyboogie” feel more in the same musical vein as King Gizzard’s 2017 dark electronic album
Polygondwanaland. These songs still continue with the spirit of the album’s lively atmosphere, but with a heavier emphasis on effects-driven keyboards and synthesizers than overdriven guitar-led blues riffs.
Fishing For Fishies is a wonderfully fun and upbeat album that is an excellent addition to the rapidly expanding discography of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Without losing any musical technicality or progressive rock song changes that the band has become famous for,
Fishing For Fishies delivers a great listening experience that will take its place among not only the best King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard albums, but among the best psychedelic blues rock albums of the past decade.
4.5/5
