King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard frontman Stu Mackenzie may have described “The Silver Cord” as a “rock band pretending to know how to use modular synthesizers,” but their newest album, released Oct. 27, is much more than that. “The Silver Cord” is an electric psychedelic rock album for the ages.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have an impressive ability to churn out albums. The band has only been together since 2010, yet they have managed to release 25 studio albums, along with 16 live albums. It’s a grand feat to be able to produce music so rapidly, especially when that music, particularly in “The Silver Cord,” is so well produced and awe-inspiring.
The album’s psychedelic, modern, rock-meets-electronica sound is almost jarring at first. There’s never a dull moment in “The Silver Cord;” it’s a hit in the face. The album never slows down, it’s uptempo from start to finish. The vibrating synths mixed with Jefferson Airplane-esque lyrics make “The Silver Cord” a mind-bending listening experience. Going beyond the often abstract and mystical lyrics, it’s the kind of album that’s perfect for both clubbing and trippy background music for an intense study session.
With lyrics like, “Power made by Ptah / Beautiful child of love / The gods ascribe praises to him / Maker of things celestial and of things terrestrial / He illumineth Egypt / Traverser of the celestial hеights in peace” and a sea of synths in the title track, “The Silver Cord,” make the sort of album that’s more for listening than deeply analyzing. Mackenzie conjures up images of transcendence and Egyptian gods. The subject of this song could be Nefertem, an Egyptian god who was said to be the child of Ptah, who is mentioned in “The Silver Cord.”
“The Silver Cord” is made up of fourteen songs, seven of which are simply extended mixes of other songs on the album, which leaves the album with a sense of incompleteness. With only a slight variation in the tone of each track, they all pretty much blend together and while each track feels a bit repetitive, the album is still musically impressive.
The production value of “The Silver Cord” is impeccable. It is much more than a rock band messing around with synthesizers. It’s a new era for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. The album strays from some of the more psychedelic tracks the band has put out before, such as the song “Float Along – Fill Your Lungs” off their 2013 album of the same name and “Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer” off their 2015 album “Quarters!”. It’s more akin to Subtronics than it is to The Zombies, but it still has a slight ’60s feel underneath the EDM sound.
The album is focused around ancient mythology. One of the stand-out tracks of the album is “Theia.” The name is a reference to the planet that has been theorized to have created the moon via impact with the Earth. Given this underlying theme of creation and transcendence, “Theia” is the perfect song to open the album with. The song is also the first mention of the concept of “The Silver Cord.” Mackenzie sings “And when Theia it did impact / The silver cord did snap as well / Leaving the soul to sail on / A journey beyond which that we dwell.” The silver cord here represents a severed connection between humanity and the Earth. Through this opening track, the band sets the tone for an album full of themes of transcendence and humanity’s connection to the Earth, which often winds up being destructive in the songs presented in “The Silver Cord.”
The last track on the album, “Extinction,” brings to life an apocalyptic mindscape. This song in particular gets awfully poetic with its lyricism. Keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith sings, “The archer drops their empty quiver / Peacefully drowning in empty river / Slip into the vast astral abyss / And you can give space one last wish.” Kenny-Smith paints an almost hallucinogenic image of a world destroyed by climate change.
The lyrics and the instrumental of “The Silver Cord” create a delirious feeling. The album leaves the listener with a euphoric, psychedelic and feverish listening experience. It’s enjoyable, but it’s flawed — it needs more. The album, while impressive and musically beautiful, is not fully fleshed out. With such majestic tracks like “Theia,” “Chang’e” and “Extinction,” “The Silver Cord” deserves more than seven songs with seven remixes. King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard are a deeply talented group. From their spectacular use of synthesizers to the sheer anomaly of being able to put out albums so rapidly, they are a skillful and accomplished band. Their newest album could be taken to another level if there was simply more content.
“The Silver Cord” is an album worthy of recognition. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have created a soundscape so bewildering that it needs to be listened to multiple times to truly take it all in. It’s not just an album, it’s an experience, a mystifying experience. Unfortunately, it’s a mystifying experience that leaves you wanting more.
