It’s certainly hard to ignore the buzz surrounding Tame Impala’s first album in five years. Pitchfork hailed it “the work of a true perfectionist.” Consequence of Sound called it “a beautiful collage.” Our own KRUI gave it a 9/10. 

So, it came as a surprise to me when, as I sat listening to its 57-minute runtime, three things happened:

1) I completely forgot what song I was on.

2) I had to start songs over because I zoned out or completely forgot the essence behind the track.

3) I got bored. 

That’s not to say that no praise is warranted towards The Slow Rush—each song features lush production and contributes to a consistent soundscape throughout. The grandiosity presented in each composition’s countless layers is impressive, especially when imagining Parker lovingly crafting each atmospheric soundbite as vocalist, songwriter, producer, and mixer primarily in his home studio. Consistent with Parker’s previous projects under the Tame Impala name, the passion is deeply felt; the creator’s intent and grit to fully immerse the listener in Tame Impala’s glossy packaging is commendable.

Although buzzwords like atmospheric and sound consistency are important for an album’s durability, it’s easy to take the same aspirations too far. Past Tame Impala albums Lonerism and Currents effortlessly plunged the listener into a unique world of psychedelia from beginning to end. And while The Slow Rush checks off these boxes, it feels like overkill with an album where song titles feel gratuitous; the tracklist, ranging from three to seven minutes, melt together. That’s not to say that every masterful album needs stand-out tracks—there are plenty of albums that need to be taken in as a whole for true appraisal. That approach, however, becomes dangerous when tracks blend together to such an extent that the music itself fades into the background. 

To really understand where any amount of disappointment comes from upon the release of such a long-awaited album, it’s important to look at previous Tame Impala efforts. Lonerism and InnerSpeaker showcase Tame Impala at its purest—a pursuit to recreate the psychedelic sound of the 60s and the 70s while using the newest technology to do so. The idea of taking an often-overlooked but influential genre of the past while putting an authentic spin on it made both albums incredibly enjoyable from a listener standpoint, as each track strove for peak quirk. Each track from Tame Impala’s sound circa 2010 and 2012 could easily nestle between misfit tracks like “Sun King” and “Mean Mr. Mustard” off of the Beatles’ otherwise commercial Abbey Road without any objection. 

Then came 2015’s Currents, signaling Tame Impala’s rise into mainstream, debuting at number four on US Billboard charts. The buzz and overall success of the album can be attributed to Parker’s transition to a more dance-infused ambiance over psychedelic rock. Although not as musically exciting as past releases, with the album teetering into monotonous territory, Currents was still ripe with the unexpected. In its opening track, “Let It Happen,” the underlying beat propelling the nearly eight-minute track along feels as if the listener owns a skipping CD. As the beat continues pulsing, stuck on a loop, rich orchestration sweeps through, overtaking the song in a surprising, magical direction at the halfway mark. The beat is still stuck, cursed to forever repeat, but it doesn’t matter—the track just entered a cosmic realm. 

Five years later,  The Slow Rush enters the conversation. The problem? It can’t contribute to any conversation when it fundamentally has nothing to say. It doesn’t have any fresh takes on a musical niche. It doesn’t have any soaring moments. All that’s left is an unconvincing, muted atmosphere. 

And that truly is all that this Tame Impala album has: atmosphere. It’s a type of atmosphere that distracting to the point that you can reach a track’s end and entirely forget how it began. The Slow Rush’s atmosphere is distracting for good reason—if it’s stripped away, what remains are shallow lyrics. In one of the most baffling lyrical choices that contributes to the album’s monotony, ALL 12 songs center around Parker asking questions. The line of questioning that each song’s message revolves around feels dangerously reminiscent of a teenager insecure after a rejection. Compiled below is just a short sample of the kind of questions that could easily be found on that same lovesick teenager’s phone:

• “Will I be known and loved? / Is there one that I trust?” (Borderline)
• “So why do I go wrong on repeat? “ (Tomorrow’s Dust)
• “Does it help to get lost in yesterday?… So what was I afraid of? Why did I worry?” (Lost in Yesterday)
• “Was I being immature?” (Is it True)
• “How could I love again? / How could I ever ask for more?” (One More Hour)

The questioning Parker uses so predominantly only fuels the repetitive and uninspired nature of almost every track’s content—the only exception being “Posthumous Forgiveness” where Tame Impala’s lyrics shine and glisten under the backdrop of Parker’s relationship with his deceased father. The lyrics here feel authentic compared to the rest of the album, coming from an emotional depth that Parker hesitantly reveals: “Wanna tell you ‘bout my life / Wanna play you all my songs / And hear your voice sing along.” Without the breathless honesty of “Posthumous Forgiveness,” the lyrics are forgettable and contribute to the album’s drag. 

From Parker’s writing, it’s apparent that he still holds the Beatles in high regard, as he references both Abbey Road and Abbey Road track “Here Comes the Sun” in different tracks. When Tame Impala alludes to “The Fab Four,” however, one wishes that he would deftly inject that psychedelic Beatlesque energy from previous releases, rather than existing as simplistic allusions on an album that exudes “department store playlist” energy instead. 

The post Album Review: “The Slow Rush” by Tame Impala appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Led by creative liege Kevin Parker, the album is a psychedelic exercise in symphony. This particular work makes good use of bandmate, Cam Avery: the band’s primary sound engineer, responsible for the group’s heavy use of the synthesizer.

The collaboration between Parker and Avery is evident from the album’s very first track “Let it Happen”: a meticulous 7-minute arrangement encompassing the band’s main modus operandi: rock guitar married to a heavy plethora of symphonic sound. “Let it Happen” takes Tame Impala’s flavor even a little bit further by departing from the song’s established palette and introducing an extended moment of lyric-less looper. It is complete with strings, percussion, and what sounds like a Peter Frampton era talk box.

It is no surprise that on Currents, Tame Impala has continued their track record of fun, manufactured guitar parts and a heavy bass/synth combo. But, it’s worth noting that this album also sports a few stylistic departures for the group. They’ve gone into full indie-tech territory with some of the shorter bursts of sound on this album.

Tracks like “Nangs,” “Gossip,” and “Disciples” are some of the shortest tracks on the album. They seem almost strategically placed between more terrific displays of the band’s musicality, including the single’s they released in anticipation of the album’s release: “Let it Happen,” “Cause I’m a Man,” and “Eventually.”

The whole album works as a type of symbiotic 13-tych. Many of the songs are experimenting with the idea of glitches in playback, a cog in the system of music as we experience it. Listening to just a single song on this album feels like eating one-tenth of a pack of M&M’s: senseless and incomplete.

The sounds on “Currents” are unapologetic outliers. While most could rightfully describe it as indie rock, “Currents” also veers itself into disco, techno, and even blues-y undertones. Upon the album’s release, critical reception noted these style variances.

Pitchfork reviewer Ian Cohen described a track on this album as “editing itself in real time.” That creative unstop can be said not only for “Let it Happen,” the song which Cohen awarded “Best New Track,” but for the 13-song work as a whole. Rock music is changing, and Tame Impala wants to put their handprint in that forming cement.

When “Currents” first came out, I had just graduated from high school. That summer was particularly hot and my friend group and I spent a lot of time on a Peony farm canoeing, camping, and picking fresh strawberries off of the runners. I have vivid memories of hearing the album for the first time as it echoed through my car’s speakers.

Smack dab in the middle of the album is a 3-minute psychedelic rock track that is known among fans as one of the worst on the album. It’s an auto tuned talk-track in which Parker details idealizing a time which has already happened and will never return again entitled “Past Life.”

I thought I was moving on

but I guess I was just switching off.

 It has always been my favorite song on the album.

The post Flowing Against the Current appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Through Lennon, psychedelic music was most prevalent in the late 60’s counterculture hippie era, taking form in perennial projects such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.

The long-forgotten genre, however, has made its way back on the musical shore as of recent years, with Parker being the main catalyst luring it forward into the mainstream.  Through his pedal guitar, warping synthesizers, and mesmerizing vocals, he has blended psychedelia with rock and pop in pure elegance.

Parker is most notably known as front man of Tame Impala. Started solely as a home recording project, Parker and company have released three studio albums and have been touring around the world. Awarded album of the year (Currents) and song of the year (Let It Happen) at the ARIA awards, Tame Impala has gravitated into the musical spotlight of the world.

Despite being a five member band on tour, the soul of the music flows from Parker himself. Responsible for writing, recording, and mixing their 3 studio masterpieces, Parker has approached music from a solitary state of mind from the beginning, finding the most creative solace when working solo.

“To be able to access that part of myself, I have to be totally in my own zone and in my own head.” he reflected in a diymag interview.

It is through these getaways that Parker has been able to connect with his creativite solace and let the musical gods take care of the rest. Pouring his style into groovy rhythms and funkadelic melodies, he has refined his sound to such a high degree that the collective ears of the world cant help but ooze with gratitude anytime his music starts pouring out.

He has always sonically expressed psychedelia through guitar, incorporating a petal to warp and drag his riffs. It hasn’t been until his most recent studio album Currents where he has begun to bring ambient, trippy synthesizers into the mix to express his sound to an even fuller extent.

Through the progression of his three debut studio albums, Parker has slowly gravitated towards the mainstream but maintained that classic Tame Impala groove and psychedelic tone. “In my opinion Tame Impala’s always been super-groovy” Parker reflected on his music with an interview with independent magazine.

“I just imagined, what if I did something where a DJ could play it and keep the dancefloor going but you could also listen to it in your bedroom with headphones? Combining those two environments for music was really important to me – music being danceable but also something you can disappear into.”

Creating a disco vibe rhythm alongside an ambient soundscape, his music is a window of escape, whether that’s on the dancefloor or the confines your mind.

Within a few years, Parker has transitioned from pure solo work to becoming a musical empire. Now headlining music festivals, remixing hit song’s such as Miguel’s “Waves”, and working alongside producer Mark Runson, he has learned to shed his introspective skin and move into the collective world of music. Lending vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation, his defiant sound bleeds out in collaboration as well.

Through Runson, Parker has found himself working alongside female pop superstars. Lady Gaga has credited him as a musical genius for his input with lyrics, production, guitar, and drums on her most recent album Joanne. Reflecting on helping her lyrically on her hit song “Perfect Illusion”, Parker couldn’t help but be thrown off by the extroverted transition he had gone through since his beginning days as a musician.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever had that out in the open – normally that whole conversation just happens inside my head. It was quite a weird sensation.”

Kevin Parker is a sonic echosystem, recycling and feeding musical nutrients to artists across musical genres and ideas. “New Person, Same Mistakes”, the concluding song on Currents was featured on Donald Glover’s FX show Atlanta and covered by Rihanna on her most recent studio album Anti.  On top of it all, news is spreading via Pitchfork that he is working on an album with SZA.

This dude is undeniably talented, gradually bringing that new wave psychedelia to the musical shore and slowly infusing it into the mainstream. With his wavy long hair, hypnotic vocals, and psychedelic art, he has created the perfect experience for John Lennon’s soul to inhabit.

Cat’s out of the bag, Lennon.

The post Art Anatomy: Artist Bio — Kevin Parker appeared first on KRUI Radio.