"THE SLOW RUSH"
TAME IMPALA
All music, lyrics, vocals, instruments and mixing by Kevin Parker
Produced by Kevin Parker
Released February 14, 2020
When it comes to the arrival and on-going presence of COVID-19, we can now easily understand this period as if there was an imaginary line separating the time into sections of "BEFORE" and "AFTER." And now that we have even a brief amount of hindsight and newfound perspective, we can now look to the art that we are hungrily consuming while we are all existing in quarantine and witness how what was once something simply entertaining has now grown to carry an added pathos.
For me, and for the purposes of this blogsite as it is focused solely upon music, it is amazing to me how three albums that I have purchased in the early months of this year, and obviously were created before 2020, now all feel to be the tailor made soundtrack for life within the global pandemic.
Previously, I have already written postings about
Ben Watt's "Storm Damage" (released January 31, 2020) and
Disq's "Collector" (released March 6, 2020), both albums are clearly some of the finest of this year but two works that are eerily prescient concerning themes of nostalgia, memory, mental illness, mortality, and our push/pull relationships with our virtual lives while becoming more disconnected from and distrustful of the real world.
Released in between those two albums was "The Slow Rush," the very long awaited fourth release from Tame Impala, five years since the third album
"Currents" (released July 17, 2015) and nearly a full year after the release of the aptly entitled single
"Patience" (released March 22, 2019).
Without any hesitation, the album has proven itself to being more than worth the wait as it is a superlative work, again confirming that Tame Impala's mastermind Kevin Parker, who wrote, produced and performed every solitary note of the album by himself from end-to-end, is one of the most singular, visionary artists we have of not only his generation, but in our current musical landscape. Every Tame Impala release serves up a musical universe in and of itself. One that builds upwards and beyond each previous release and contains musical signposts to clear inspirations but congealed in a fashion and overall sonic display that is unlike anyone else.
"The Slow Rush" begins with the opening statement of "One More Year," propulsive and immersive in groove and enveloping sound as represented by the trademark lush pillows of keyboards, synthesizers, propulsive drums and the ethereal voice of Kevin Parker (augmented by what he refers to as the "Gregorian Robot Choir") flowing and phasing through the atmosphere.
"Do you remember we were standing here a year ago
Our minds were racing and time went slow
If there was trouble in the world, we didn't know
If we had a care, it didn't show
But now, I worry our horizon's been nothing new
'Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it too
We're on a roller coaster stuck on its loop-de-loop
'Cause what we did one day on a whim
Has slowly become all we do
I never wanted any other way to spend our lives
I know we promised we'd be doing this 'til we die
And now, I fear we might
Oooh, now I fear we might..."
Writing about this album, with this song in particular as the opener, months after its release--which was before the full unleash of COVID-19, is unquestionably a mind blower for the song itself has transformed due to the nature of the world we all now live within, and it is indeed a much more unstable, frightening, intense time than we may have ever anticipated.
Yet, surprisingly, Tame Impala recognizes the tension of the existential crisis, which is our finite time to live life, and with that, instead of being a song of doom, "One More Year" is a pledge to live within the now, to the fullest of our abilities with nothing less than the widest, open-armed embrace.
From here, we ascend to the majesty of "Instant Destiny," a victory lap of a song, although one tinged with the bliss of possibility set yo a musical prog/pop/hip-hop confection that to my ears, recalls Kanye West's blinding fanfare "We Major." The song flat out flies through the clouds and into the sun as it is a song of utter fearlessness!
The previously released "Borderline," has been re-touched and revamped and now re-appears, with a tougher, stronger sense of runway strut and stride. It is here where Tame Impala reaches deeply into its inner "Night On Broadway" era Bee Gees and emerges with supreme swagger as evidenced in what I am wondering is that great synthetic Moog keyboard bass and the firmly stuffed into the pocket drums. Trust me, you will not be able to remain static when hearing it.
And yet, the song fools you as it is kind of the underpinning of "Instant Destiny." This song really conveys the psychological twists of navigating life with purpose and outer masks, when our interior is all a jumble with insecurities and fears about our own abilities, our souls plagued with constant questions.
"Will I be known and loved?
Is there one that I trust?
Starting to sober up
Has it been long enough?
Will I be known and loved?
Little closer, close enough
I'm a loser, loosen up
Setting free, must be tough
Will I be known and loved?
Is there one that I trust?
Starting to sober up
Has it been long enough?
Will I be so in love?
Any closer? Close enough..."
After such an energetic beginning, "The Slow Rush" takes a deep dive into memory and loss with "Posthumous Forgiveness," a six minute, multi-part remembrance of Kevin Parker's estranged relationship with his Father. "Every single word you told me/I believed without a question, always," Parker sings. "To save all of us, you told us both to trust/But now I know you only saved yourself."
During the song's first sections, which are overflowing with mournful synthesizers atop the slow drum beat suggesting a long, thoughtful walk on a windswept day, we have lyrics certainly tinged with anger but more suggest a palpable sorrow, of once loving a man who failed his family. Yet, by the following sections, during which the song's sense of musical pacing is accelerated, we feel the continuous sense of conflicted emotions of mourning, regret and the still primal wish to connect with one's parent, even after that parent has passed on. "I wanna tell you 'bout the time/Wanna tell you about my life," he pleads, ensuring his personal statement becomes universal.
When emotions become overwhelming and anxieties become overpowering, then do as the next song suggests. The sensational "Breathe Deeper" indeed serves as a life-affirming antidote with it succulent dancefloor soundscapes, which unfolds over several sections and a hair over six minutes. "Tomorrow's Dust" offers a more pastoral yet no less rhythmic take on the passage of time as the successes and failures of yesterday are now gone and the hopes and fears of the future will very rapidly become history, so again, Kevin Parker implores of us, live in the now! And most cleverly, even as this song carries a certain amount of existential anxiety, the song miraculously swoops in with a blissful coda featuring the return of "Breathe Deeper," a simultaneous signal of what we've heard and what is to arrive next.
For me, the album track that I have latched onto the greatest arrives with the glorious ballad "On Track," which perfectly arrives at the midpoint, and Kevin Parker has also described as being the emotional core of the album. It is the song that I have found myself driving across my city, playing it on repeat, finding and losing myself into its soundscape, which fluctuates between loneliness and security, feeling hopelessly adrift and feeling dipped luxuriously in warmth.
"I close the front door and turn on the light
I let out a breath and hold in a sigh
Ain't nothing' new, ain't that much in sight
And if I'm counting days, dream fruition ain't what it's looking like
But strictly speaking, I'm still on track
Strictly speaking, I'm holding on
More than a minor setback
But strictly speaking, I'm still on track
And all of my dreams are still in sight
'Cause strictly speaking, I've got my whole life
I lost a wheel a while back
But strictly speaking, I'm still on track
Challenges falling in my lap
Strung out again, but still on track..."
Pensive, poignant and superbly enveloping, this ballad for the soul (unlike existing as a soul ballad), propelled by rich keyboards, a yearning organ and widescreen drums, defines the moment when all perceptions find themselves at a certain crossroads, possibly just mere steps before attaining a certain sense of accomplishment, whether the making of a decision, achieving dream or even leaving something behind or everything in between. And strangely, for an album that is so communal, this song deserves to be experienced completely alone as it is the sound of all of us just trying to keep placing one foot in front of the other.
"Lost In Yesterday" returns to the club and Tame Impala reaches inwards to pull out its inner Michael Jackson by way of that infectious Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" shuffle as the song holds up that mirror to all of us as we explore the concept of memory and how unreliable it always is, especially when the further away we find ourselves from an experience, the rosier it may seem. The danger of nostalgia rears its head again, warning us of how an over indulgence in the past threatens our engagement with our present. As Parker sings, "If it calls you, embrace it/If it holds you, erase it."
Young love and fear of the future sets the stage for the magnetic "Is It True," where our suitor just wishes to live in the moment and the object of his desire only wants to know what comes next, most crucially, admission and promise of eternal love, but what does forever even mean?
The ticking clock of inevitability arrives loudly with the booming "It Might Be Time," a song that sounds as if Kevin Parker re-wrote Supertramp's"Breakfast In America" (released March 29, 1979) and combined it with the siren war cry of The Bride in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series (2003/2004). A completely apt sonic display as it presents the very moment when we discover with finality that we are not at all what we once thought of ourselves, we have aged past our perceptions and have become something else altogether, something perceived to only occur in a far off future yet has shockingly now arrived.
After the two minute mirrorball twirl of hopes and wishes that is "Glimmer," the album glides into its grand finale, the anthemic seven minute plus "One More Hour." As Kevin Parker has also expressed in the album's press notes, for this song, the climax of the album, "The moment has arrived..." For me, especially now that we are months deep into a life with COVID-19, surrounded with all manner of uncertainty and anxiety, the moment, whatever it may happen to be, has indeed arrived housed with an unquestionable fear of the unknown that we can never know until it happens.
As much as the song can be viewed as a possible hour of triumph, it is also the moment of pause, which, if I am to dive further into the album's time related concept, is a moment that can feel interminable. The drama, as evidenced in Parker's heroic drum performance, the tentativeness before making the leap, as projected in the steady, metronomic keyboards. It is a song of fight and flight for if we only had just one more hour to wait...one more hour to experience it all over again...one more hour to just have and to hold a little bit longer.
Tame Impala's "The Slow Rush," first and foremost is exceedingly worth the five year wait. Musically, Kevin Parker, via his musical alter-ego, ventures further and deeper onto the dance floor, extending himself into even greater soundscapes where the rhythms and the psychedelia burst into astounding overdrive. For myself, who happily experiences the sensation of synesthesia, the album is a veritable shower of colors to hear and experience and believe me, I would gather that for those of you who typically do not associate sounds and colors, this album with invite you into a lusciously grand new world.
Yet, it is not an album that is entirely sonic rainbows and audio glitter, despite the fact that Parker, again, has weaved together one of the best sounding albums you will hear, with first rate singing and instrumental performances combined with a lush, inventive and fully immersive production.
Tame Impala's "The Slow Rush" feels to be especially fitting that based upon the lengthy period between albums and the process of waiting since the release of the "Patience" single, Kevin Parker clearly has the concept of time upon his mind, a concept that now feels considerably fragile and malleable in this time of COVID-19, as our collective time/life span has now been effectively and irrevocably split into sequences that can now be described as "Before" and "After."
Furthermore, with all of these months within lockdown quarantine, our days and nights, weeks and months, all blended and blurred together to the point where time itself felt to be simultaneously stagnated, instantaneous, breakneck and elastic enough where past, present and future felt to co-exist, making time more of an illusion than ever and regardless of our memories, desires, regrets and anxieties. With that, the album can now feel as if it is almost a work from the future arriving now in the present to allow us some guidance as to how to proceed forwards, instead of an album made in the past and just now finding its way in to our ears.
Certainly Kevin Parker is not mastermind enough to generate a global pandemic in order to place a severe halt upon the act of living and experiencing life in the very way humans are truly meant in order to make an album concept play better. But that being said, the work does indeed feel as if we are undergoing a certain amount of time travel as the songs rivet us to the dance floor in the present and our minds and souls travel to the past, present and future due to the album's lyrics and themes.
It's arrival before COVID-19 and our relationship with it during this period makes for a wickedly ingenious combination. But, even if there were no COVID-19, "The Slow Rush" would still find itself as being another high watermark success for Tame Impala as the songs themselves are so well composed, produced, arranged and performed that they demand repeated listenings, where we and the multi-layered music are allowed to get to know each other on a more intimate basis.
It is a strange feeling but regardless of the time between album releases, every new Tame Impala experience always feels to arrive at precisely the right time. They always feel so very much of the moment and yet, they all incorporate sounds of the past and present to ensure a fully idiosyncratic future vision is realized. It is music that could only be made right now and it also has the ability to stretch through the years on either end of itself so luxuriously.
Which makes Tame Impala's "The Slow Rush" utterly, unquestionably timeless.
