There is always going to be an element of experimentation when it comes to conceiving and crafting a concept album. By definition they’re ambitious, creative, excessive and conceptually difficult. For every Tommy or Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars there are a hundred bad ideas best left unremembered.
Melbourne psych-rock weirdos King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are throwing their hat in the concept ring by releasing Eyes Like the Sky, a spaghetti western audiobook. On paper that sounds like one of the worst ideas ever conceived over a bong and a bowl of cereal, but in practice ELTS is a concise and original idea, executed with outstanding skill.
Right off the bat it should be noted that this is not a rock and rock album. Aided by legendary The Dingo’s frontman Broderick Smith as narrator, the album tells the tale of death and murder aided by the stunning visceral imagery created by songwriter Stu Mackenzie. No, this is not a rock record. This is a soundscape. It’s a spoken word trip through a dangerous, violent and bloody old west America, like No Country for Old Men if it had been scored by Quentin Tarantino.
Smith’s gravelly vocals narrate the cowboys and indians saga slowly and forcefully, while Mackenzie and the band backs him with murderous sounding spanish guitar riffs, rolling, galloping drums and any number of atmospheric hoots and hollers to fill the spaces in between.
This audio storytelling technique creates a dark and disturbing novella-like fable, leaving the listener with visions of rusty six shooters, bleeding, red rocks and a sunset on fire, like Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian come to life.
Show off Recordings
8/10
Reviewer: Nick Mackay