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            King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is an Australian rock band that was created in 2010. Their music style is unique, often described as psychedelic. Inspired by music from the past (especially from the seventies), their style is somewhere between indie rock, acid rock, and neo-psychedelia. The band experiments with unusual time signatures, polyrhythm, and microtonal music, making their sound unique. Their music transports us elsewhere; somewhere between this world and another, in a dreamlike experience.

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            Visuals make up a big part of the band’s identity. The visuals and the sounds live together in harmony. They just make sense together. All of the band’s art, which includes album covers, posters, video clips, live visual performances, and merchandise, is created by the same artist: Jason Galea, a multi-disciplinary artist who knows damn well what he is doing. This man has clearly studied music visuals from the past. His art is often psychedelic and has this vintage feel to it, which matches perfectly with the musical identity of the band. His art deals with themes of the subconscious and dreamlike experiences.

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            In 2014, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released Oddments, a 12-track album. For this album cover, Galea went all in. He created a unique and colorful piece. The first thing that came to my mind when I first saw this album cover is: firstly, what the hell is going on here, and secondly, why do I like it so much? So many things are happening at once, and yet the piece is so coherent. There are so many things our eyes want to go to: a blue bird holding a golden cup, a broken TV, a trash can with eyes, an igloo, a fortress, a police car with legs, a disfigured bearded cat. Every time we look at the album cover, we notice something new. And that is where the beauty of this piece resides: in its endlessly entertaining nature.

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            My favorite song from this album will forever be Work This Time, as it is the first song I ever heard from the band. This track has a special place in my heart. When I listen to it, it takes me someplace else.

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            I believe that Work This Time and the album cover perfectly work together, they are complementing each other beautifully. It is almost as if the song was created for the art, and not the other way around.

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            When you listen to this track, notice its electric feeling. Notice the sounds of the synth and the electric guitar. Notice how electric and psychedelic it all feels, as if the music had time-traveled into our ears, straight out of the seventies. The album cover has the same vibe; with the psychedelic drawings, the craziness, the dripping. It’s all over the place, and like the track, it has a vintage feeling.

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            When you listen to this song, notice how soft and slow it is. The singer seems to be whispering into your ears, as if he wanted to put you to sleep, or as if he were a snake charmer and you were a sleepy cobra. The drums, as well as all of the other instruments, are played very gently as well. The song is very dreamy, as Joey Walker is singing ‘’Can never lay my whole head down, can never lay my whole head down.’’ The musical piece is undeniably soft (like, really… is it even a rock song or is it a lullaby?) – and so are the colors of the album cover. Yes, the album is very colorful, but not in an aggressive way; the colors look tarnished – as if the album had spent too much time on a shelf next to a sunny window. The song feels like a dream, and so does the album cover. I wonder if Jason Galea found his inspiration from his dreams… It’s either that or a psychedelic trip.