Alizarin Lizard

Alizarin Lizard

Do You Just Want Me To Watch You?

If you live in Dunedin and you’ve never heard Alizarin Lizard, shame on you. Alizarin are one of the best current New Zealand bands, though are perhaps more occupied with crazed 42-date tours than they are with self-promotion. This, their second full-length album, is classic Lizard, filled with psychedelic guitars and self-deprecating lyrics. The main single “Hipster” is a masterpiece, and the best place to start if you’re a newbie.

There is definitely pop involved, particularly in the third song “Meal,” filled with catchy lyrics and head-bobbable riffs. But this comes after the swirling psychedelic tidbit “Mushroom,” as the band bends genres quickly enough to prevent any chance of boredom. Later on there are smatterings of funk and a bit of straightforward story-telling lyricism in “Forty,” about a fourty-year-old rooting an eighteen-year-old, which despite its narrative still manages to be strangely catchy.

The album is similar in tone to the last, which is generally a point against for a band. However, each song is different and lovable in itself, so it could be called shuffle-friendly. I’d highly recommend the first album as a preamble to this one, which is really a supplement to the rest of their releases.

Even better, go and see them live and witness the glory first-hand!

3.5/5

This article first appeared in Issue 2, 2013.
Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Lisa Craw.