Tame Impala [update]

Psych rock goodness.  Sounds a ton like late 60's Beatles, and maybe some Cream, and a little bit of Jimi Hendrix Experience.  I have been entirely late to the Tame Impala party - I had heard one of their hits ("Elephant") for years on the radio without actually knowing who sang the song, and only recently have I figured out who they are.  I like this band.  Aussies from Perth, they started out with a few EPs in the late oughts, but then really hit their stride with 2010's Innerspeaker and then gained real fame with 2012's Lonerism.  They have a new album coming out soon, and the singles they have released from that coming album ("Let It Happen," "Cause I'm a Man," "Disciples," and "Eventually") sound like an evolution of sorts from their best stuff - trippy, harmonic, fuzzed out rock, but with a little more electronic sound now.  Here is "'Cause I'm a Man"

• "Let it Happen" is kind of a crazy eight minute long thing, shifting between dance rock, glitchy electronic, orchestrals, and smeared synths. (4.4 mill. on Spotify)
• "'Cause I'm a Man" sounds like a joke Lonely Islands song or something.  All 70's swanky slink and synth with falsetto singing about being a Man.  But then you listen to the lyrics, and he's apologizing for making bad choices and blaming it on being a man. Eminently pleasurable song. (3.8 mill. on Spotify)
• "Eventually" is a sleepy, fuzzy rocker heavy on the organ. (1.8 mill. on Spotify)
• "Disciples" gets a little funkier and danceable.  But it feels like it ends too early - like there is more coming. (1.2 mill. on Spotify).

Their two most listened-to tracks are "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" and "Elephant," both from 2012's Lonerism.  Here is "Elephant"

Over 21 million spins.  Really cool song.  I love the bass line and the opening lyrics - "Bet he feels like an elephant, shakin' his big grey trunk for the hell of it."  Doesn't make any sense, but it feels right to sing it along with the great chug of this tune.  And they've got some other strange things going on in the album.  I feel like you could easily confuse someone with some of these tracks by telling the listener that this was long-lost Beatles B-Sides - check "Be Above It," the album opener. After running through this album all day at my desk, the whole thing makes me think of that era of the Beatles.  Their experimental, psych phase. Great stuff.  I also hear a hint of the 90's Brit-pop folks like Blur and Oasis.

The most popular track off of Innerspeaker is "Solitude is Bliss," with over 3.5 million spins.

I have to say that I'm not nearly as in to that older album as I am to the 2012 one. Innerspeaker kind of keeps going on for too long, where as I felt like Lonerism ended too soon.  According to the crack team of the World at Wikipedia, "Lonerism was voted number one overall in Rolling Stone, Triple J, NME, Filter, Urban Outfitters, FasterLouder and Obscure Sound's 2012 Album of the Year polls." Ooooh, the vaunted Urban Outfitters year-end poll!  I bet the band was PSYCHED to add that trophy to their cabinet.  I wonder if the Wikipedia entry for First Aid Kit notes that they won the dulljack best album of 2014 award? Huh, for some reason it doesn't mention my award.

Weird to me that I had still never checked this band out after RS named their album the best of the year, but I guess I was slacking that year on discovering new music.  Either way, I'm glad that I've now given them their due.  I dig it and will hopefully see them at the festival.

[update 8/19/15]  The full new album is out - called Currents - and it continues with the promise of those first four tracks I talked about above.  Another standout is "The Less I Know the Better," funky stuff.  I still think the album opener, "Let It Happen," is the best tune on the whole thing.  And I feel like a few of the tracks on here are less interesting and/or lean more on electronica than I would like, makes the album as a whole drag, but the good tunes are great enough to buoy the whole thing.  The one that pokes out immediately is "Past Life." 

In addition, RS did a good profile on the guy behind the band, Kevin Parker, and his recent set at Austin's Psych Fest.  He sounds intense, and I kind of want to go see Perth for myself.  And it sounds like his live show is going to be a good spectacle.  Looking forward to it.