King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Honey Single Review

It’s been almost a whole year since King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released their last album Infest the Rats’ Nest, an album that polarised fans with its thrash metal style. The new single ‘Honey’ sees the band return to a more familiar light, combining elements of their microtonal output with the acoustic sounds more reminiscent of their most accessible record Paper Mache Dream Balloon.

The shimmering symbols at the start are a nice touch over wonky acoustic guitar parts, rhythmically reminiscent of the polyrhythms of Polygondwanaland. To any astute King Gizzard fan you can definitely tell they’ve changed the sound of their bass. Over their last three albums the bass guitar shines through so much more satisfyingly than ever before. The bass line in this track is so breezy in its optimism that it washes over you. I love the addition of flutes towards the middle of the track in addition to what sounds like a synthesised harp as the track closes out.

Lyrically, I feel that Mackenzie is following a similar vein to their previous two (ecologically friendly) albums. At the start of the track he sings ‘The world we’re in is broken and you’re the magic potion’. I love the spiritual element to these lyrics. There’s an undeniably fun atmosphere that comes with the band wherever they go. Even when they’re playing something acoustic, you really want to have a dance around. No word on whether this single is a precursor to their 16th studio album but if their prolific nature is anything to go by I’m sure we will have at least one King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard album by the end of the year. There’s a good chance that this album will be somewhere between Paper Mache and Flying Microtonal Banana which has me keen for a whole album’s worth of songs in this fresh sonic world.