TAME IMPALA
All music, lyrics, vocals, instruments, recording and mixing by Kevin Parker
Produced by Kevin Parker
Released July 17, 2015
My specialized brand of synesthesia is receiving the most wondrous workout!
Music chooses you. Let me write that statement one more time. Music chooses YOU! That sentiment is one that I have expressed over and again upon this blogsite and in the case of the band Tame Impala, that sentiment could not be any more prevalent even if it tried.
In late 2012, like many listeners, I fell down the astonishing psychedelic rabbit hole known as "Lonerism" (released October 5, 2012), Tame Impala's second full length album. The oddity about this particular experience and musical discovery is that as I scour my memory banks, I cannot even begin to remember just how or why I even entered my beloved B-Side Records with the intent of purchasing the album in the first place. Perhaps it was a the highly positive tenor of the album reviews, but I honestly cannot remember especially as I really didn't know much to anything at all about the band at that time, and therefore, I really don't know why I would have given the album much thought. Regardless, something in the ether spoke to me, propelled me to the record store where I did indeed purchase the album and on the very first listen, I was wondrously swept away by the blinding layers of 21st century psychedelia on display.
From song to song, Tame Impala blazed brightly, weaving in one sonic layer after another, like ephemeral building bricks, lifting every piece of music higher and higher to the skyscraping level where I was able to "hear" and "see" colors in a fashion that was simultaneously familiar and yet so vibrantly, and exotically new. It was an album steeped in musical history, thus making it an album that could only have been released in 2012. But even so, it was almost like I had not heard anything quite like it before either.
Tame Impala's "Lonerism" just had it all, From the slightly androgynous/Lennon-esque vocals drenched in reverb echoing seductively throughout my consciousness to the music and instrumentation which warmly surrounded me with its bed of analog synths, cloudburst blasts of guitars and a rhythm section that seemed to owe as much to 21st century hip-hop as it did to the music of the late 1960's-mid 1970's. The fact that Tame Impala is essentially the one-man band creation of singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker was just a bonus for me as I have always been fascinated with those studio wizards who are just able to meticulously piece together the sounds from their brains and transform them into music for the masses all by themselves.
My unabashed enthusiasm for "Lonerism" made me salivate for more and in doing so, I soon returned to B-Side to pick up the debut album "Innerspeaker" (released May 21, 2010), which carried a more guitar heavy sound. Additionally, I was graced with seeing the full five member band at Madison's very own Orpheum Theater in a spectacular live performance two years ago. Every time I heard the band, I was filled wit an increasing desire to know just precisely where would Tame Impala head next.
Now I know.
At long last, "Currents," the third album from Tame Impala has arrived and it is a deeply mesmerizing and all enveloping album. Easily existing as one of the very best albums of 2015, I am wholly unable to credit Kevin Parker enough as he has somehow created such a defining artistic statement (while seemingly existing on a perpetually never ending world tour) that feels as much of an extension from the first two albums as much as it is a clear break from them. Parker's intense focus is flat out amazing as his admittedly obsessive attention to every major or minuscule detail ensures that not one sound or element is out of place and yet, the entire work still feels as free flowing as the wind through the trees. "Currents" is undeniably a fully intoxicating, luxurious and exquisite work from an artist who, by now, has truly jettisoned himself to the front ranks as far as I am concerned.
Several months ago, music websites posted Tame Impala's stirring, shimmering cover version of none other than Michael Jackson's late period stunner "Stranger In Moscow." As I think back to that period, plus Parker's three stellar contributions to Mark Ronson's smash "Uptown Special" album (released January 13, 2015), I am now wondering if those were the moments and signposts that Kevin Parker used to signal to fans just where he would next lead Tame Impala...or where the music was leading Tame Impala. As I previously stated, "Currents" does indeed sound like the next most logical step to the two previous albums but yet, it is indeed a defiant line in the sand. By now, fans of Tame Impala are most familiar with the overall sonic palate of the band and the albums and to a large degree, listeners will be rewarded with the same splendidly sumptuous package. Even so, Kevin Parker has largely altered his own formula, challenging himself and his fans all along the way.
Where the first two albums devoted much energy to the guitar and extended psychedelic overdrive workouts, "Currents" is a tighter, more concise yet no less epic collection of songs. Parker has also mostly eschewed with the more elongated songs of Tame Impala's past and has discovered a "less is more" approach that does indeed work wonders. Tracks like "Nangs" and "Gossip" don't even crack the two minute mark and basically serve as lustrous interludes and the equally brief and brisk "Disciples" is a power pop pocket symphony that shines and sparkles in under two minutes as well.
Furthermore, instead of psychedelic rock and roll, Kevin Parker has utilized Tame Impala to wrap his spirit around more straightforward pop songs and most definitely, the emotional urgency and rhythms of soul music. Throughout the album you will hear how Parker has set down the guitars and replaced them with oceans of keyboards and analog synths which are augmented by that specialized brand of finger snapping slow jams propelled by deep, hip swaying bass guitar and hip-hop kick drum swagger.
For instance, the spirit of Michael Jackson hovers profoundly over the dance floor stylings, and completely with Parker's emotive vocals (just really listen to how he sings the line "Oh my love, can't you see yourself by my side"), in the tale of unrequited love, "The Less I Know The Better." And hear how the wall of keyboards plus the bass guitar, drums and (yes) those finger-snaps cushion the future emotional wounds of "Eventually" as well as the sad memories contained in the hauntingly reflective "Past Life." Because of how the overall sound melds with the emotions, to my ears, Tame Impala's "Currents" does not live too terribly far away from the likes of Prince's earliest songs and albums like "When We're Dancing Close And Slow" and "It's Gonna Be Lonely" from his self-titled second album (released October 19, 1979), "Do Me Baby" from "Controversy" (released October 14, 1981) and even "Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)" from "1999" (released October 27, 1982). The entire effect is as enveloping as submerging oneself within a tub of warm water.
And while that may throw some listeners off, believe me, it all feels so beautifully purposeful as Tame Impala's idiosyncratic brand of soul music speaks directly to, and emerges completely from, the soul of Kevin Parker. While "Currents" does certainly exist as a stunning headphone album, it is quite a contrast from the first two releases internally. Where the psychedelia of "Innerspeaker" and "Lonerism" were designed to take you out of yourself, "Currents" dives deeply within the emotions, taking you further into yourself (or in this case, Kevin Parker) as you hope to contain, gather and understand what is happening to you from the inside out. Because of this different conceptual and thematic approach, I feel that Tame Impala's "Currents" works richly as nothing less than Kevin Parker's version of The Beach Boys' iconic "Pet Sounds" (released May 16, 1966).
In addition to being an exploration into Kevin Parker's creative mission and possibly as a lament to the breakup of his relationship with musician Melody Prochet (herself of the band Melody's Echo Chamber), Tame Impala's "Currents" exists as a song cycle of self discovery from youth into adulthood, itself a constant and evolving Tame Impala lyrical theme. But with this new album, I do not believe that I have heard Kevin Parker's lyrics and actual singing to be so crisply direct, to the point of being almost conversational. The brevity and sheer economy of words that in turn convey a universe of emotions recalled Brian Wilson's masterpiece for me in regards to the music's bittersweetness and melancholic tone, the lyrical openness and all the way to the nearly instantaneous emotional connection. In essence, "Currents" may be an album of "sad songs" where even the "happy" songs are "sad," yet the many sequences of painful growth contained within one's personal evolution have certainly not diminished any of the albums' unquestionable beauty.
"Currents" opens with the album's audacious first single, the dazzling, nearly eight minute "Let It Happen," itself a sonic bridge between the past and...ahem...current Tame Impala albums and also a song that serves as Kevin Parker's purpose of intent, in music and existence. "It's always around me, all this noise," Parker begins. "But not nearly as loud as the voice saying, 'Let it happen, let it happen (it's gonna feel so good)/Just let it happen, let it happen." What we have is Parker's internal existential debate about allowing himself to let go of the controls, so to speak, and allow the music and life itself to direct him to where he will ultimately find himself...hopefully a place of greater creativity and new enlightenment. The level of anticipation and hopefulness flows through the speakers with each new development within the song itself, from the pulsating rhythms to even the bars of the hypnotic and slightly robotic vocals of intentional gibberish.
From those heights, "Currents" takes the listener upon an emotional odyssey complete with all of the peaks and valleys that occur when one undergoes the process of self-transformation, Self-doubt and wavering self-confidence arrives in the simmering and shimmering beauty of both "Reality In Motion" and "Love/Paranoia." The fragility of the male ego is confronted brilliantly in the nearly erotic pulse of the album standout "'Cause I'm A Man," terrifically executed as Parker exhibits his finest falsetto, making this song the album's most androgynous. And the self-explanatory entitled "Yes I'm Changing" takes us to a slow motion, audio dream world where Parker regards and waves goodbye to himself in his life's rear-view mirror, and in turn, he encourages us to perform the same duty, if any of us are ever to fully evolve--as individuals as well as being fans of Tame Impala's music.
"I was raging, it was late
In the world my demons cultivate
I felt the strangest emotion but it wasn't hate, for once
Yes, I'm changing
Yes, I'm gone
Yes, I'm older yes, I'm moving on
And if you don't think it's a crime, then you can come along with me...
...I saw it different, I must admit
I caught a glimpse, I'm going after it
They say people never change, that's bullshit
They do..."
But even with epiphany, emotional turbulence remains as depicted in the album's stunning, menacing six minute finale "New Person, Same Old Mistakes," where Parker questions if the shedding of his old skin was even worth the trouble at all, therefore making the album serve as a close, yet less abrasive musical cousin to Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" (released September 9, 1999), itself an album of internal transformation and the conflicting relationships between an artist, his muse and his very angry demons.
Through the pacing and flat-out perfect sequencing of the album's 13 tracks, Tame Impala's "Currents" finds Kevin Parker no less meditative or creatively restless but somehow braver in his audacity to break with his musical past in order to push forwards as an vibrant, valid artist. No small feat in this time of musical homogeneity and no risk celebrity. I applaud Parker greatly, for it really feels that he could have easily created "Lonerism 2," and it could have easily been terrific, especially as he has spent all of these years slowly building up his musical presence and identity in the overly-saturated landscape. But he didn't ! He went left when he could've swayed to the right and he ultimately emerged with his best release yet.
As he sings in the swirling euphoria of "The Moment," a song which feels as the extension of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and XTC's "King For A Day," yet does them each a few steps even higher, Parker repeatedly announces emphatically, "It's getting closer!!!" as the music soars up into the skies, through the clouds and touches the sun itself.
As far as I am concerned, with "Currents," Tame Impala has fully arrived!!
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