Quarters!
| Quarters! | ||||
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| Released | 1 May 2015 | |||
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| Length | 40:40 | |||
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| King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Quarters! | ||||
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Quarters! is the sixth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 1 May 2015[1] on Heavenly Records, peaking at No. 99 on the ARIA Charts.[2]
The album was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2015, losing to Barney McAll for Mooroolbark.
Background
[edit]The album features four songs, each running for ten minutes and ten seconds[3] making each song a quarter of the album - hence the title. Drawing upon jazz-fusion and psychedelic rock, the album's more laid-back sound was described as "unlike anything they’ve released before" and as "an album more likely to get your head bobbing and hips shaking as opposed to losing footwear in a violent mosh".[1]
Stu Mackenzie described how the composition of the album came around in an interview in 2015:
"I wanted to make a record where I didn’t have to yell, as well as exploring some longer, repetitive song structures.” Four tracks, four quarters, each one precisely 10:10 minutes long, each one an extended jam teeming with melodies, the occasional trickle of water, space funk, laughter like Pink Floyd and deliciously unfussy grooves. I also didn’t want to use any brutal guitar pedals or sing through blown-out guitar amps as I usually would."[4]
Reception
[edit]| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 68/100[5] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| The Guardian | [7] |
Upon its release, Quarters! received generally positive reviews by music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable".[5]
Writing for The Guardian, Everett True claimed during the album that "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard unravel mysteries, perform magic, tease melodies out of intricately formed musical patterns and do it all with a face that would be straight except it’s taken too many mind-altering substances."[7]
Music
[edit]The album consists of four psychedelic pop songs, all running exactly ten minutes and ten seconds.[6] "The River" is a Traffic-style jazz-rock song with Santana-esque congas.[6] It is the second song by the band to feature an odd time signature, with the majority of the song in 5
4.
Tim Sendra of AllMusic described the album as a "jazz-prog epic."[8] Mike Katzif of NPR described the album's music as "jazz-inflected prog rock."[9]
Track listing
[edit]Vinyl releases have tracks 1–2 on Side A, and tracks 3–4 on Side B.[10]
All tracks are written by Stu Mackenzie.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The River" | 10:10 |
| 2. | "Infinite Rise" | 10:10 |
| 3. | "God Is in the Rhythm" | 10:10 |
| 4. | "Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer" | 10:10 |
| Total length: | 40:40 | |
Personnel
[edit]Credits for Quarters! adapted from liner notes.[11]
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
- Michael Cavanagh – drums, conga
- Cook Craig – guitar
- Ambrose Kenny-Smith – harmonica, vocals
- Stu Mackenzie – vocals, guitar
- Eric Moore – drums, percussion
- Lucas Skinner – bass
- Joey Walker – guitar, bass
Production
- Stu Mackenzie – recording (track 2), additional recording, mixing
- Wayne Gordon – recording (tracks 1, 3, 4)
- Joe Carra – mastering
- Jason Galea – cover, layout, photo
Charts
[edit]| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[2] | 99 |
References
[edit]- ^ a b Weiley, Meaghan (30 April 2015). "King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's 'Quarters!' Reviewed In Quarters". Tone Deaf. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ a b Wallace, Ian (1 June 2015). "Week Commencing ~ 1st June 2015 ~ Issue #1318" (PDF). The ARIA Report (1318). Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA): 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
- ^ "King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard* - Quarters!". Discogs. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ True, Everett (11 June 2015). "King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: We should have started a taxi service". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
- ^ a b "Reviews for Quarters! by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
- ^ a b c Sendra, Tim. "Quarters! - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ a b True, Everett (29 May 2015). "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Quarters! review – mind-altering musical patterns". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
- ^ Sendra, Tim. "Nonagon Infinity - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
In 2015 alone they released Quarters, a jazz-prog epic featuring four songs that were each exactly ten minutes long...
- ^ Katzif, Mike (21 April 2016). "Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, 'Nonagon Infinity'". NPR. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ^ Quarters! at Discogs (list of releases)
- ^ Track listing and credits as per liner notes for Quarters! album
