King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard: Paper Mâché Dream Balloon

I've generally taken a pass on prolific 2010s+ psych/prog act King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Even getting past the band's name, I don't much care for modern-day prog, especially when it's got some heavy metal leanings; throw in the fantasy/sci-fi thematics and cult-like jam band following, and their mythos seems pretty impenetrable.

Still, at the urging of some online denizens, I decided to set aside my preconceptions and plunge into their back catalog to see if maybe I'd been missing out. And it turned out, I kinda liked some of their work. Not all of it, mind you, but a few of their albums saw the band in more comfortable (for me) classic rock, jam band, jazz fusion, and 70s prog territory.

I found 2015's Paper Mâché Dream Balloon in particular to be relatively approachable. It's much more pastoral than their heavier work, some folk-oriented prog reminiscent of Jethro Tull or Fairport Convention, with acoustic guitars and flute solos, kept moderately contemporary with post-Phish eclectic jam band eccentricities. Which sounds like a weird stew, and it is, but there's a melody-driven classic rock vibe to keep it grounded, the prettiness mostly outweighing the experimentational weirdness. 

There were a few other LPs I liked as well based on my brief explorations--like 2022's psychedelic-jam-heavy 2-song opus Laminated Denim; and 2024's apparent concept album Flight b741, which rocks a little harder but offers some genuine pop hooks, and sounds like a great lost mid-70s prog-tinged classic rock throwback. But Dream Balloon is a surprisingly friendly entry point.

"Bone":

"Sense":