King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Continue to Do It All, and Then Some, on 'Changes'

Amputate your truth and get ready to groove a bit, 'cause King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is back with their 24th album — and fifth of this year — Changes. There are some music aficionados out there who believe that King Gizz is full of musical alchemists and everything they touch turns to gold, setting the standard in whatever genre the Australian six-piece decides to dip their feet in at the time. I wouldn't throw myself into that category, but the band is inarguably and impressively prolific, talented and forthright on delivering a metric tonne of exploratory concepts and grooving tunes in the form of jazz, psych rock, R&B, prog, acid pop, chillbeat hip-hop — you name it. 

Changes is a rare collection of songs for the Gizz in the sense that it was conceived in 2017 — a year that once again saw them releasing five albums — but never completed, as the band felt the results were too "static." The album is essentially full of jams, a song cycle that features the same chords in every track. 

To call the album static would be a misrepresentation, but there are a few songs that fall flat; "Hate Dancin" is catchy with its jazzy Korg synths/piano and funky bassline, but half-baked lyrics drag the song down. The lyrical conceit is that singer Stu Mackenzie, you guessed it, "still hates dancin'" — but wait! No, he doesn't actually. It's a bit that doesn't feel worthy of a whole song, though thankfully it's one of the album's shortest. Closer "Short Change" also stumbles, a freaked-out reprise of epic opener "Change" that feels like it was squeezed in at the last minute.

"Change," however, at 13 swaggering minutes, sets up that whole mutating chord concept with a gorgeously arranged sense of simplicity, with members trading solos atop a chilled out, warm keyboard backdrop. By the seven minute mark, it switches from psychedelic jazz pop to a '70s R&B/modern hip-hop sparkle, held aloft by a pretty impressive and whacky lyrical flow. The track could've ended at the 10 minute mark, but King Gizz insist on building the outro for an extra two minutes until it explodes into a fuzzed-out psych-rock crescendo. The whole track is reminiscent of something off 2017's jazzy freakout Sketches of Brunswick East, their collab with Mild High Club. 

"Astroturf" is also a marvel of jazz-fusion psych, that, like its lyrics suggest, sounds like the birth of a new universe — If for nothing else, stay for the brief but fantastical mid-song jazz flute solo. "No Body" is stuffed with the kind of alternating scale guitarmony that King Gizz has perfected over the years, and more than stands up on its own. 

Changes isn't the most complex album King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have ever made, but it's been gestating in the backs of the member's minds for years, and feels oddly representative of everything they do well. Whether you're a true Gizz-head or just dipping your toes into their psychedelic swamp for the first time, it's worth a listen.