The prolific-is-an-understatement Aussie rock sextet King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is back with a new single, “Le Risque,” a bluesy number that plays right into the band’s strengths. Then again, with a whopping twenty-five studio albums (in only fourteen years!) under their belt, it’s hard to know what their weaknesses are – last year, they proved they can do swirling electro-prog (The Silver Cord) just as well as they can do thunderous stoner metal (PetroDragonic Apocalypse) – but King Gizz perhaps sounds the most like themselves when they’re writing barroom rock tunes like “Le Risque.”
Driven by a shuffling drum beat and a delicate tangle of electric guitars and electric piano, there’s a deceptive amount of technical proficiency hiding beneath the hood of this track, a love-letter to adrenaline with lyrics so hilariously meatheaded they make AC/DC look like Sufjan Stevens (“Cause I’m the fuckin’ recoil of a gun in hell!”).
The video might be the best part of the song; watching the group jaunt around an airplane hangar with Top Gun ‘dos is the most fun I’ve had watching a music video in a while. You can check it out below. Flight b741, their upcoming twenty-sixth record, drops August 9th on their new label, p(doom) Records, and the band plays The Dell on August 27th. Details on that concert can be found at the WXPN Concert Calendar.