L.W. (subtitled Explorations into Microtonal Tuning,Volume 3) is the seventeenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard &the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 25 February 2021 by Flightless[3] in Australia and self-released in the U.K.,U.S.,and Europe on 28 May 2021.[4] The album was preceded by 3 singles,("If Not Now,Then When?",[5] "O.N.E."[6] and "Pleura"[7]) which were released alongside music videos uploaded to YouTube. L.W. is a companion album to K.G. Explorations into Microtonal Tuning,Volume 2,released only four months before,and a continuation of microtonal themes first featured in Flying Microtonal Banana (2017).[8]
The album was hinted at as early as October 2020,before the previous album had even been released. The band released a shirt with their full discography on the back,where fans deduced that the final letters,"K.G.L.W.",were referring to the band's upcoming album,K.G. and a future album,presumably titled "L.W.".[9]
The album's opening track,"If Not Now,Then When?" was released as a single on 10 December 2020,and was accompanied with a music video,uploaded to the band's official YouTube page.[10] The singles "O.N.E." and "Pleura" were released on January 28 and February 18,respectively,with accompanying music videos - with the latter recorded,edited,and uploaded to YouTube in under a day.[7]
The album's existence was confirmed by a listing on the online music store Elusive Disc,where a listing for the album's pre-order had appeared. This listing also confirmed the tracklist and release date,albeit by accident.[11] The band itself clarified that this was untrue,with the album "definitely not coming out in February",but later backtracked,giving three different release dates for the album,eventually confirming the release date.[6][7] On February 22,a final teaser snippet was uploaded to YouTube,featuring a minute of audio from the sludge-metal track "K.G.L.W". The video,created by long-time band collaborator Jason Galea and titled From the bowels of hell,comes L.W (real footage),is a 3D animation featuring an army of skeletons working to forge a number of chains,which they use to pull the L.W. logo out of a pit of lava - announcing the final release date of February 26.[12] It was then released a day early on their personal Bandcamp page.
Composition
L.W. has been praised for exploring and utilizing a diverse array of facets from psychedelia genres and incorporating an "Eastern" sound.[13]
The album starts with the psychedelic funk song:"If Not Now,Then When?," with "O.N.E." and "Supreme Ascendancy" continuing to utilize the funk. "Ataraxia" has been described as dark and Sabbath-meets-T-Rex-like,and is followed by the penultimate "See Me," which is "a slice of experimental psychedelia."[13]
L.W. was well received by critics,with reviewers such as Pitchfork and Exclaim differing in their opinions on whether it was a stronger album than its predecessor.[15][16] Among professional critics,L.W. received an average Metacritic score of 82 (versus 77 for K.G.);their scores were 8.3 and 8.9 respectively among users of the site.[17][18]
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