Tame Impala
Currents
An aside: this new move in the music industry to align album releases with movie releases is as brilliant as it is stupid. Fortunately, the one great thing it does is allow me to actually get a review of an album (that has been streaming ahead of time) out before the album itself. This means you, the reader, get to either take my review into consideration, or more likely ignore it, before actually "purchasing" it (I don't kid myself, y'all ain't buying anything). That said, the first to benefit from the super advance is this week's addition to the New Music catalog...
It's been three years since Tame Impala's absolutely brilliant Lonerism was released. What was essentially and concept album on the feeling of loneliness and abandonment written to the tune of the 70's best psychedelia was also one of the best albums of this decade. Currents, while still running with the lo-fi and psychedelic recording techniques, is not the same musically. Kevin Parker's third album is more tightly produced--each song has a consistent musical theme as the last. It also includes a lot...A LOT more synthesizers and drum machines, aligning itself more with Psychic Chasms than Saucerful of Secrets.
But that's not to say Tame Impala abandons the old way completely; all the TI hallmarks are still plainly evident: hyper-layered vocals, shoegaze-style guitar, lyrics that stir thought more than knee-jerk emotion. Even at his most incomprehensible, Parker delivers his words with that pleasant-yet-eerie calmness that has long become his signature (and a psych-rock signature since the 60's).
All that said, I'm still finding it impossible to pick a favorite song from this set. Even the minute-long interludes are surprisingly catchy and ear-worming, and Tame Impala releasing basically every song as a single beforehand doesn't help. If you take away nothing else from this, just know that Kevin Parker is a genius, Tame Impala's music is mindbogglingly good even when they change styles, and Currents is one of the best albums of the year.
TL;DR: Currents is fantastic. Listen immediately.
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