''Flight b741'' is the twenty-sixth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (KGLW) are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Cook Craig ( ...

, released on 9 August 2024. The album was announced on 1 July and was made available for pre-order eight days later. This album marks a return to the band's

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

and

boogie Boogie is a repetition (music), repetitive, swung note, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . groove (music), "groove" or pattern used in blues which was origina ...

sound. ''Flight b741'' is the first King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard record to be released on their new label, p(doom) Records. At the

2024 ARIA Music Awards The 2024 ARIA Music Awards were the 38th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) and consist of a series of awards, including the 2024 ARIA Awards, ARIA Artisan Aw ...

, the album was nominated for

Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...

Background

On 27 October 2023, when the band released their 25th studio album, ''The Silver Cord'', they posted a thank you post via Instagram while teasing another record. On 6 May 2024, the band announced their new label, p(doom) Records, which they named after the concept of

P(doom) P(doom) is a term in AI safety that refers to the probability of existentially catastrophic outcomes (or "doom") as a result of artificial intelligence. The exact outcomes in question differ from one prediction to another, but generally allude to ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. During the European leg of the band's

World Tour 2024 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's World Tour 2024 was a concert tour of South America, Europe and North America. It began on 14 March 2024, in Santiago, Chile at Teatro Coliseo and concluded on 21 November 2024 at Factory Town near Miami, Flo ...

, multiple songs from ''Flight b741'' would be debuted a month before the album's announcement. The album was based on

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

s and sees the band incorporating a

style reminiscent of their sound on 2019's ''

Fishing for Fishies ''Fishing for Fishies'' is the fourteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 26 April 2019 by Flightless and ATO Records. The announcement of the album was accompanied by the rele ...

''. Lead vocalist

Stu Mackenzie Stuart Douglas Mackenzie (born 26 October 1990) is an Australian musician best known as the frontman of rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. He serves as singer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist for the band and is recognized as its le ...

said about the record: "We're having a lot of fun, but we're often singing about some pretty heavy shit," Mackenzie adds, "and probably hitting on some deeper, more universal themes than usual. It's not a sci-fi record, it's about life and stuff. But the record is like a really fun weekend with your mates, you know? Like, proper fun." Mackenzie also stated: On October 29, 2024, the band made a surprise announcement of a new single, "Phantom Island". In the announcement, the band noted that the ''Flight b741'' recording sessions had actually resulted in the creation of twenty songs, with only the first ten included on ''Flight b741'' itself. The remaining ten were recorded with a full orchestra and announced to be their own album.

Album cover

The album cover for ''Flight b741'' was designed by Jason Galea and features a wooden airplane piloted by eight pigs. According to an Instagram post by Galea, the airplane is a model, and the pigs were meticulously crafted from clay.

Year-end lists

Track listing

Vinyl releases have tracks 1-5 on side A, and tracks 6-10 on side B.

Personnel

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard *

– vocals, guitar (all tracks), bass guitar (tracks 3, 4, 6, 8–10),

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

(tracks 3, 9), organ (track 3) *

Ambrose Kenny-Smith The Murlocs are an Australian rock band from Melbourne. They are composed of Ambrose Kenny-Smith on vocals and harmonica, Cal Shortal on guitar, Cook Craig on bass guitar, Tim Karmouche on keyboards, and Matt Blach on drums. They were formed in ...

– vocals (all tracks), harmonica (tracks 1–7, 10), saxophone (tracks 1, 3, 6, 9), piano (tracks 1, 2, 8–10), Mellotron (track 7) *

Joey Walker Joseph William Quinn Walker (born 11 October 1988) is an Australian musician, singer, and producer who is best known as one of the three guitarists for the band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Walker was previously part of the electronic duo ...

– vocals (all tracks), guitar (tracks 1–4, 6, 8–10), bass guitar (tracks 5, 7) * Michael Cavanagh – vocals, drums, percussion (all tracks) *

Cook Craig Nicholas Roderick "Cook" Craig is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter and is a part of groups King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and the Murlocs. Craig releases music under the name Pipe-eye. Solo history Pipe-eye's debut EP ''Cosmic ...

– vocals (all tracks), organ (tracks 3–8, 10), Mellotron (tracks 1, 7, 9), bass guitar (track 2) * Lucas Harwood – vocals (all tracks), bass guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 9, 10), piano (tracks 3, 5, 7, 10), organ (track 2),

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

(track 10) Additional musicians * Sam Joseph –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

(tracks 1, 5, 7, 10); full band recording Technical * Stu Mackenzie – production,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, mixing * Joe Carra – mastering Artwork * Jason Galea – artwork,

layout In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement. Specifically, layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...

, photography * Maclay Heriot – photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2024 albums Blues rock albums by Australian artists King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard albums Boogie rock albums