BUTTERFLY 3000

I'm a big fan of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard but for me this is by far their worst album that comes at a funny point at the band's career. The band are known for ragged psychedelic rock, polyrhythmic prog explorations, jazzy odysseys, metal and all sorts and yet have crafted a distinct identity due to commonalities in song writing and production. This approach often works very well for the band, as despite the gimmicky nature of the constant genre hopping they are generally able to back it up with enjoyable albums.

The band's last two projects K.G. and L.W. had mixed reviews due to the hodge podge nature of the songs, "overuse" of microtonality and repetition of the song writing tropes the band has crafted in the previous decade. I found them enjoyable albums but I can definitely understand some of the criticism.

Butterfly 3000 is another example of the band changing genre, this time taking things in a dream pop/modular synth direction. However in my opinion the song writing just isn't there, and when it is there it's nothing new. The album is drenched in synthesiser effects and while I'm not a big synth fan I don't mind it and at times they can sound really good as an instrument. On this album though it's all so flat, the songs fly by in a haze of barely differentiable arpeggios, there's no particular synth passage I can say I enjoyed. When I did enjoy this album it was some of the acoustic guitar riffs, mellotron fuelled chord progressions and so on. Another major gripe I have is the vocals which are often autotuned to a very high pitch, King Gizzard attempting a chipmunk vocal style is not something I want to hear at all really, even the passages with the normally brilliant Ambrose Kenny Smith taking lead vocals are ruined by this vocal meddling. The vocal hooks and melodies themselves are either unmemorable or sound like throwaway radio pop. This is a real shame as this band have a good knack for melodies and vocal hooks.

I would stop short of calling it a generic pop album even though it has too much of that, as it does have lots of polyrhythmic bits, though even then the other issue I have with the album is that when it is good it's still repeating the band's same musical ideas such as the name of the song being the chorus, polyrhythms that are just sortof, there for the sake of it , the feel of the melodies and so on. I actively dislike a majority of the songs, and even though a few songs towards the end like Black Hot Soup and Ya Love have some brilliant passages these tunes are too similar to certain tracks from Gumboot Soup and other projects. Despite a synthy overcoat the band aren't doing a huge amount in terms of new musical ideas and thus instead of exploring new territory the band are just reusing the same ideas with a different instrumentation.

Another aspect I dislike is the track to track transitions, many reviews describe this album as like a single piece but, it really doesn't operate well that way. The band have some great examples of tracks that flow into eachother really well but everytime they attempt it here it comes across as clunky and gimmicky which to be fair is a problem L.W. and K.G. also suffer from.

All in all, I give this album 2 stars as, a lot of people, for some reason, really really like this album (how is it at 4.15 at the time of posting!?) and there are a few new ideas it would be good to see the band develop. But overall I'd say this album is pretty bad.

I truly like the step King Lizzard has taken here. I love the sound, I love the apparent lightness of the music. It's so playful.

Many people may be put off by this album if you compare it to their previous outputs that were in general somewhat heavier in sound. But I love it.

I am always impressed by how KG & the LW manages to create an album built upon a sound. This one is another example. And they are so adventurous. It's really proggy in my view.

And Catching Smoke is sooo catchy. It's one of my favourite songs by this group.

I see this as one of their best outputs. I rate it 5 stars.

I don't know how KGLW is able to be so consistently stellar across so many genres. Polygondwanaland was one of the best prog releases of 2017, Nonagon Infinity is a psych classic for a reason, Infest the Rats' Nest is a modern masterpiece of thrash metal, and Butterfly 3000 is another win for the band. The album is synth-centric and full of dreamy melodies which wash over the listener. It's a gentle sound palette, but the compositions are clever. The lead melodies are inventive, and the songs morph in surprising, satisfying ways. The mood can shift easily from warm and comforting to anxious and close. The songs are short and accessible, but the KGLW have not tempered their ambitions or creativity.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2021/07/12/odds-ends-july-12-2021/