It was between the prehistoric glam-rock stomp of Lonerism’s “Elephant”, which ended with a wild drum solo, and the smooth keyboard pulse of new song “Yes I’m Changing”, for which Parker abandoned his guitar and pedal effects to perambulate the stage with a microphone, clutched with both hands as though for dear life. The way touring drummer Jay Watson brought “Why Won’t They Talk to Me?” to the boil tonight typified the style.Ī deliberate juxtaposition at the heart of the set showed how far Parker has moved on with Currents, a top five hit in the US and UK. Back then Parker’s songs were caught between inertia and ambition, a tension expressed by the interaction of washed-out vocals, swirling layers of guitar and driving drums. Liner Notes is a regular column on music from an admittedly Gen X point of view.Tame Impala have always been Parker’s one-man project, expanding outwards from the reveries of 2010’s InnerSpeaker and 2012’s follow-up Lonerism. Key songs: “One More Year,” “On Track” “Is it True,” “Glimmer.” It will likely be viewed as one of this year’s best records. While “The Slow Rush” lacks some of the really great bombast of “Let it Happen,” It’s a very good record in its own right, showing a slight evolution of Parker’s songwriting and recording chops and still producing a very compelling and original work. Parker’s real skill is in having the last 50 years of pop music motifs at his fingertips and being able to blend them in ways that not only sound great, but also sound wholly original. If the “Let it Happen” was a mix of Bee Gees and Black Sabbath, “The Slow Rush” sounds more to me likewhat might happen if Post Malone fronted The Flaming Lips and was produced by Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne.Īny comparison, however, doesn’t do Tame Impala justice.
The band’s (though Tame Impala is really all Parker, who writes, performs and records everything, handing his “bandmates” a completed record which they learn in order to tour.) new album, “The Slow Rush,” has a lot in common with the last, but it’s traded in the psych rock for a slightly more polished sound that has fewer guitar sounds and more loops and keyboard pads.įrom the moment of the first track, “One More Year,” Parker sets the tone for a rich blend of sounds – low bass, lush keyboard pads and an even more up-front, “boom bap” drum sound that propels every song forward, edging his material a bit closer to electronic dance music and contemporary hip hop and pop sounds. The sound is both big and a little dangerous. There are prominent guitar riffs, thumping drum loops, and sophisticated arrangements.
Yes, there were elements of yacht rock, but many of the songs on the record have an edge you’d never find on a Peter Cetera record. It quickly became among my favorite records that year. Tame Impala is really all the work of Australian Kevin Parker.Īt the urging of a good friend, I decided to give their album at the time, “Let it Happen,” a chance.
The whole presentation – from front-man Kevin Parker’s long hair and falsetto to the bubbling keyboard pads – struck me as a misfiring millennial tribute to yacht rock, the soft rock form pioneered by the likes of late-era Steely Dan, Michael MacDonald, Christopher Cross and many more in the late 70s and early 80s. The band didn’t register for me at first. The first time I heard Tame Impala, it was a 2015 live performance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert.