King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Get Mellow on “The Last Oasis”

Every news outlet and self-proclaimed fan is scrobbling best-of year-end lists, plucking gems out of the coal mine that is 2017. But really, who cares if Australian psych heroes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard make it on anyone’s list? They’re one of the only bands releasing new music (almost five albums to be exact, including Polygondwanaland, with several tracks released in the last several months). Sketches of Brunswick East already made our 50 best albums of 2017. We could be done here, but we’re not.

After singles “All Is Known,” “Beginner’s Luck” and “Greenhouse Heat Death,” today they’ve released “The Last Oasis.” Since we only remember things in short spurts here on the internet, “All Is Known” is every guitar riff ever used in rock ‘n’ roll, “Beginner’s Luck” is a smooth, cheeky gambling crooner, “Greenhouse Heat Death” is psych-meets-goth death inside of a greenhouse (this is literally what the song is about) and “The Last Oasis” is low-key and lovely, even upbeat at times, proving that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink the optical illusion.

We hope that, after reaching the oasis, they get the Grammy, the fifth album or whatever the reward is in tandem with a long, Australian hibernation. You can listen to “The Last Oasis” below, and King Gizzard’s Daytrotter Session underneath that.