King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
ATO
7/10
The best kind of concept records are the ones that don’t feel the need to tout themselves as such. Take Paul & Linda McCartney’s Ram, for example. The concept is not verbose, but it’s there, essentially asking the question, “What are the sounds of a family retreating from the world?” That’s it. Concept record.
Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard‘s fourth album in two years, is a cousin to Ram in style and approach, less oriented around the love of family so much as it is around the love of rock and roll itself. Consisting of all acoustic instruments mostly recorded on an Australian farm, the album finds Stu Mackenzie and the rest of the septet embracing the more pastoral elements of their electrified flower-kraut by simply pulling the plug and simulating a blackout.
Full of sugary melodies, dust-stomped percussion, and at least a few flute solos, it’s a delightfully fun experiment—so long as lighting candles and having a party in a barn is the type of thing that sounds fun to you. That’s it. Concept record.
