Thoughts on Cyboogie 7" (2019) by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

I've decided I want to also talk about new music. It makes sense, really, because that's the form of media I'm probably most familiar with. Plus I listen to it literally all the time.

In any case, my favorite band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released a new single called Cyboogie, and I decided to listen to it.

And it's pretty great.

For those who are unfamiliar or haven't seen my stupidly long blog post in which I talk about many of my favorite bands, King Gizzard is my favorite. Part of the reason they are my favorite is because they change their sound for basically every album. They have gone from garage rock to psychedelic rock to metal to prog rock, and they have done an excellent job on every style they have tried.

Which brings us to Cyboogie.

This is probably the first time they've done something that's not really tied to garage or psychedelic rock. The A-side track Cyboogie is full of synths and sounds very 80s in tone. It has a robotic electronic theme going and you can tell with the synths and the distorted singing, plus I can't hear any guitars in the song at all which I believe is a first.

The song is very boppy. You can jam along to it very easily and it's pretty catchy. They definitely know how to work their instruments. And from what I can hear from the lyrics, they are pretty good. King Gizz usually has some weird lyrics and this is no different.

The thing is, though, I'm not completely a fan of how they distorted the lyrics simply because it's a bit hard to understand them at times. I can pick out a lot of times they say things, like when they sing "Cyboogie" one of many times, or when they sing "augmented senses" or "bouncy ball thoughts" just to name a bit. But still, it's a little distracting.

I also found some of the note and chord patterns a little predictable. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, it's just noticeable since King Gizz usually is very experimental and subversive. But overall, I like Cyboogie a lot.

But I should also give my thoughts on the B-side, Acarine.

To get it out of the way, I like Acarine a lot, even more than I like Cyboogie. Despite the two tracks being a little similar in terms of instrumentation and them both being in a minor key, they could not be more different in terms of tone. Acarine isn't the kind of song you'd tap your feet to, but it gives off this pleasant yet creepy chilly feeling that kind of rattles you in a good way.

The singing I found to be a lot easier to listen to because it wasn't run through a synthesizer the way the singing for Cyboogie was, and I like the lyrics way more. The instrumentation was broader, too; I only really noticed synths and drums in Cyboogie, but I noticed those as well as harmonica and possibly guitar in Acarine.

I also really dig the tonal shift around the halfway point. It feels like a different song altogether, but one that still fits what the song seems to be going for.

Tying it all up is the theory aspects of it. I like Cyboogie, but it's way more conventional, and I am partial to music that is less so. Cyboogie is in 4/4 time and is in A minor from what I can tell, which are both pretty common. Acarine is in 5/4 time and is in C-sharp minor from what I can tell. Plenty of bands don't do that but King Gizz does, and that's something I can really appreciate.

So yeah. Overall, I really like this. I don't think it's the best thing they've released so far but they've released 13 full-length albums before this, plus a few EPs and singles, so this has a lot to compete with. But still, I don't mean to discount this, because if you like some 80s synth kind of music, then this should fit for you.

This is the official music video for Cyboogie:

And here is a rip of Acarine someone uploaded after they presumably got the single: