MURDER OF THE UNIVERSE is the 10th album by Australian rock outfit King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, released 2017. But is it good?
Going from PAPER MACHE DREAM BALLOON to this album is probably the biggest jump from one album to another I could've made within the king gizz discog- in a discography full of huge jumps. This is the second of five albums the band released in 2017, and of the five I think this one is my favourite. But why?
So I don't think there are many people that would argue that this isnt the band's most narratively driven record- Stu Mackenzie has said as much, and when you're getting narrators for your tracks it becomes pretty inarguable. The album, despite conatining 21 tracks, only really like it has 3: 1 for each narrative. The tracks for each tale all flow into one another, as well as there being thematic similarities between the 3.
The first "chapter" is the tale of the altered beast, which opens with this immediately dystopic and apocalyptic soundscape, with Leah Senior's aloft but weirdly soothing spoken word narration, which gives this album the unique quality of having vocals that aren't tied to the melodies and rhythms of the songs. The narration here gives this chapter the strongest and easiest to follow narrative, maybe it's just because the lyrics are repetitive enough that you notice any changes and progressions in the lyrics, and the instrumental exists relatively seperately from Senior's vocals. Stu's lyrics are pretty silly, but funny- "I see you, I want to, Seize your brain, I'd like to put it in my head", and man the instrumentals are really heavy at points, bordering on metal even, but I think there's still King gizz's ever present psych influence too.
I think it's worth pointing out at this point that I'm a sucker for concept albums- wether it's Benji, Kid A, Dorkcore, Plastic beach, I just can't help falling in love with albums with these cool ever present themes. So having an album that is so obviously that is like preaching to the choir, pretty much.
I think the middle chapter "Lord of lightning Vs. Balrog" is probably the weakest chapter, the narrative isn't nearly as strongly presented. I mean, it starts with the track "some context" which is just this 16 second sample of Gamma Knife from 2016's Nonagon Infinity, That being said, this section has of the best instrumentation on the album, there some record glitchy and weird sounding electronic breakdowns, that get more processed and distorted as the chapter continues, but the narrative isn't nearly as strong. The "battle" between the two characters feels kind of short, but does provide some cool imagery.
The third chapter is about a cyborg robot called Han-Tyumi, which features a text-to-speech program narrator instead of Leah Senior, which actually suits the last third, as the music gets more electronic, with "digital black" sounding the most like a possible stand alone song here, but still totally fitting in with the album. This last chapter is about a robot cyborg who wants to vomit and die, before the entire universe ends. The robotic vocals have this weird melancholy, even as the robot says it wants to expereince nausea, or to die in the arms of a lover. The music continues to become more processed sounding, with the penultimate track "vomit coffin" being interuppted by these rushes of electronic sound. The album ends with Han-Tyumi expnading to consume the entire universe, with the last track having this ehllish soundscape with stream of conscious lyrics. It's a really good ending.
I don't feel like I have much to say about this album because there are only 3 bits to comment on, but I feel like they're all solid- even the Balrog chapter is still alright despite being the clear worst. But the album? it's pretty great. It has this reallt cinematic tone to it, with these absurd images and huge ideas presented, the imagery is often violent and full of conflict, which ireflected pretty well in the album cover. So yes, another record well worth checking out.
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