Review Summary: King Gizz get extra brassy and extra breezy, bringing the soulful summer vibes you didn't know you were missing
Phantom Island is an album that only the likes of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard could pull off. The band have such a penchant for expertly embracing any style or genre that catches their fancy that
Phantom Island was probably inevitable, but the amount of respect King Gizz pay to the genres they tap into and the craftsmanship they put into putting it all together is what makes it stand out.
And sure, there are other bands who do something similar, but they're in rare company. The blues rock base of
Phantom Island betrays its real complexity. It'd be like calling Zeppelin or The Beatles or The Rolling Stones blues rock. Sure, it's
true, but what they do on top of that is what makes it special.
Layers of horn-led funk replete with a full orchestra add a sense of swagger and swing. Flutes and woodwinds elevate the breezy nature of tracks like "Aerodynamic" and "Spacesick." String swells add to the cinematic drama of self-titled opener "Phantom Island," while the ever diversely voiced Gizz float between the traditionally structured and soulfully delivered "Deadstick" - a standout summer groove and dance banger if ever there was one - and the free-flowing, but expertly metered narrative of "Aerodnyamic."
All that to say,
Phantom Island is subtle in its complexities - using intricacy to enhance a narrative and a feeling of anything and everything that might catch your mind on a walk by the beach on a warm summer day. That flute section is there to push the wind through your hair as you walk down the street. The push and pull in "Silent Spirit" between the horns and intricate, Eastern-sounding guitar is there to make you feel that elaborate tension of the waves and the beach.
Does that mean that the effects themselves are always subtle? Of course not. "Phantom Island" enters to much orchestral fanfare and a stark, if darkly beautiful piano. "Eternal Return" ends with choral interplay on the currents of big blues bends carried by equally sized string swells. It's not hard to go on and on, but the point is that band orchestrate the orchestra to such a degree that they feel natural and inseparable.
It's a beautiful experience with an overall upbeat, outdoors-y, summer-y vibe that's hard to deny - despite it being winter in the southern hemisphere.
Phantom Island is King Gizz at their best producing yet another album that can not only be heralded for its precision and progression, but for once again showing how to take a bundle of diverse ingredients and transform them into a cohesive, intriguing, and overall
fun experience, while remaining introspective and exploratory.
