Album Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Eyes Like The Sky

Seven-headed garage psych collective King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard released an excellent debut LP last year, 12 Bar Bruise. In amongst the beer-swilling, hair-flailing hedonism, there was Sam Cherry's Last Shot, a track that mirrored a love of Westerns and their inimitable scores (especially those by Ennio Morricone, et al.), narrated by band member Ambrose Kenny-Smith's father Broderick (of The Dingoes fame). This seemingly one-off quirk excursion sowed the seeds for this very unconventional sophomore LP Eyes Like The Sky, which is essentially a Western audiobook with an amazing, lovingly-rendered soundtrack made by a band who clearly worships the tropes of the genre.

Again narrated (and this time written) by Smith, this episodic descent into the life of Miguel O'Brien, and the circumstances that lead to him transforming into the titular 'hero', is a tale ripped from the pages of the dark and violent Wild West that Clint Eastwood, Franco Nero and Cormac McCarthy are well acquainted with, while the narration sounds like it's been captured straight off a wireless.

The songs themselves are incredible – the title track the perfect precursor to the morally ambiguous tale to follow; the percussive intensity and distorted harmonica of Drum Run a feverish counterpoint to O'Brien's tortured self-discovery.

The swagger and choral sighs of Evil Man evokes the malevolence of the Americans coming into Native American land, “led by a man with a leather book with a cross stamped on it”. The album runs through the plot at a click of rates to the climax of Dust In The Wind, and the resolute conclusion of Guns And Horses. A brave yet incredibly exciting effort.