Tame Impala (2019)

One Liner:  Tasty psych rock goodness and modern groove science

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie rock, psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop, neo-psychedelia
Home: Perth, Australia

Poster Position: 1

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: This was one of my favorite shows of 2015's ACL, and that year was stacked with some really great stuff.  They put on an amazing show of freaky psych rock, groove-powered pop, and overall amazing music.  I loved it.  Psych rock goodness.

If you only heard their first two albums, you would just think that they are copying the freaky acid-tripping side of the late 60's Beatles, and maybe some Cream, and a little bit of Jimi Hendrix Experience.  But then they released 2015's Currents, and they morphed that psych rock thing into something different, with more beats and more groove and more soul.  It's excellent.

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 when they were coming in 2015 did I figure out who they are.  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.  Although, what I have realized after reading about them for a while is that really this is the Kevin Parker show, and the other band members are just there to make his vision a reality.

InnerSpeaker was released in 2010, and won Rolling Stone's album of the year, as well as a handful of other accolades.  The most popular track off of Innerspeaker is "Solitude is Bliss," with over 20.8 million spins.

The effects on those guitars is trippy and cool.  Good groove though.  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.  

Back when I was reviewing them for the 2015 show, Lonerism was their major hit album, but Currents has definitely overtaken it for stream count.  Their two most listened-to tracks from the album are "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" (148.3 million) and "Elephant," (101.8 million).  Here is "Elephant"

Remember that one?  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.

Currents is their most recent album (speaking of which, shouldn't a new album have come out by now?), and it absolutely rules.  I went so far as to purchase it because I wanted to love it so hard.  They definitely have an evolution from their earlier albums, but I still think the new, evolved product is wonderful.  Trippy, harmonic, fuzzed out rock, but with a little more electronic sound now. I think "Let It Happen" is my favorite track from the album - I love the weird glitch-out in the middle of it - but shockingly that one is not the most streamed.  That crown goes to "The Less I Know The Better," which surprisingly fires up more than double the streams of their other big hits.  362.8 million streams.

Oooh, I had forgotten that video.  I like that freaky ass video.  Funky tune and I dig it.

• "Let it Happen" is kind of a crazy eight minute long thing, shifting between dance rock, glitchy electronic, orchestrals, and smeared synths. (148.2 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. (63.4 mill. on Spotify)
• "Eventually" is a sleepy, fuzzy rocker heavy on the organ. (72.6 mill. on Spotify)
• "Disciples" gets a little funkier and danceable.  But it feels like it ends too early - like there is more coming. (40.1 mill. on Spotify).
• "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" is a jam as well, with a heavy bottom end that helped it become a sweet cover by Rihanna (73.3 million).

I have one bad memory associated with Tame Impala, and that is this one time when I was chilling in Mexico with some buddies, and went over and stuck Currents on my phone through the stereo system.  One of my buddies, who is also pretty into music, was floating around in the pool at the time and said something to the extent of "ugh, the new electronic stuff, I wish they would have stayed with the old sound."  And that random thing has stuck in my head for like 5 years, that Chad actually didn't like Currents, when it was the most dope album ever.

Well screw you, CHAD!  I'm gonna go watch the party show and jam out to the new stuff!  Actually, in a horrible twist, I may not get to see the band, because I'm gonna go watch Guns N Roses for sure, and so unless I get a one day pass to go Friday night of second weekend, I'm gonna miss this stuff and be very low about it.

The next video was on their website for a while, and I find it completely fascinating.

 That one guy can just wander around a studio like that, with some looping equipment attached to his instruments, and form a full-fledged track.  I mean, I'm sure he worked and prepared and wrote and it isn't this easy by a long shot, but still, the dude literally makes it look like he's goofing off and he just made a really cool groove.

While they still don't have a full new album out, two new singles have popped out in 2019, teasing the sound for the new album.  Seems like we are sticking with the psych pop electronica thing - leaving the guitar rock behind.  I can't say I love either of them - "Borderline" is very much a pop track, and "Patience" is better but still a little repetitive and overly full.  On the one hand, it has a great groove and many-layered psych sound that I dig.  On the other hand, it feels a little too tricky, like he's showing off the layers he can stack and the effects he can apply.  Of course, I just listened to "Borderline" again and then find myself humming it as I walk down the halls - its catchy for sure.  We shall see what the new album sounds like, but I'm hopeful for another classic.