Album of the Week: Tame Impala, 'Currents'
by Bill DeVille
July 13, 2015
Psychedelic music has been around since the 1960s. It's trippy, spacey and dreamy, and it's often awkward to dance to. Tame Impala's new album might just change that. Currents is the third album from Perth, Australia, artist Kevin Parker, whose star is shining a little brighter since appearing on several tracks on Mark Ronson's Uptown Special album. Parker makes the albums himself but tours with a first rate band.
Currents heads in a different direction from the first two albums. Parker has taken Tame Impala from solitary headphone music to a more dance-floor-ready sound. It's psychedelic music that you can dance to — OK, it's not exactly Funkadelic, but it's sort of funky, without losing its psychedelic edge. As Kevin Parker recently told The Guardian, "I don't like the idea that I'm a one-trick pony, even if I am! No matter what else I do, I have to make sure that Elephant isn't Tame Impala's biggest song anywhere."
Speaking of big, Currents opens with the nearly eight-minute epic, "Let it Happen," which is like four songs in one. I get totally lost in this track, which Tame Impala opened with at their sold-out First Avenue show back in May! I suspect they'll play a much larger venue next time they roll through the Twin Cities.
But Currents isn't just a bunch of random psych jams. The album appears to be about coming to grips with a breakup. Parker insisted in The Guardian that the album is completely autobiographical; yup, even soon-to-be rock stars go through breakups. "Yes I'm Changing" is like a dreamy open letter to the lover who parted ways. "Eventually" is a kind of hopeful tune where Parker proclaims, "I know that I'll be happier / and I know you will, too."
"Cause I'm A Man" might be the funkiest and sexiest tune on Currents. This is one of my jams of the summer of 2015; it kind of reminds me of Godley & Crème's song, "Cry." Another funky highlight is "The Less I Know the Better"; I hear hints of Earth, Wind & Fire on this one as Parker sings in his finest falsetto, "Don't make me wait forever."
Kevin Parker shows the agility of the band's namesake "impala" all over Currents — lucky for us, this Tame Impala isn't also endangered.
Tame Impala's Currents releases on Friday, July 17, on Modular/Interscope.