King Gizzard member Cook Craig’s new solo album is bubbly and spacious
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26.06.2019

King Gizzard member Cook Craig’s new solo album is bubbly and spacious

Words by Jonathan Reynoso

This is his second LP under the Pipe-eye moniker.

Cook Craig is Pipe-eye. A member of the bands King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and The Murlocs, Craig has now put out two albums and an EP under his alternative pseudonym.

Inside/Outside shares connective tissue with a King Gizzard album and feels related to 2017’s Mild High Club collaboration, Sketches of Brunswick East. There are whiffs of the same loose and sunny style and Alex Brettin’s influence is hard to miss on the LP.

Craig is a bassist, so that instrument takes the spotlight on many songs. Like on the song ‘Best Friend’, an ode to the singer’s Boston Terrier, or the track ‘Best Party Ever’. The title track has this child-like vision of watching yourself from a third person perspective – like a fly on the wall, or a fish in its bowl. It’s a track that Syd Barrett would have written back in his post-Pink Floyd days.

Much like Barrett, however, Craig tends to wander in his sound. ‘Brown Bottle’ is a lifeless jam that has this plucky string melody that quickly gets old. ‘Fluorescent Wonder’ doesn’t do anything for me; it only slows down the momentum. Ultimately, many songs bleed into one another, creating a gooey soup of sound.

If Craig had more varied instrumentals and didn’t ride the coattails of Mild High Club,  Inside/Outside would have been a more unique listen.

6.5