San Francisco – Kevin Parker is no stranger to chaos. The 29-year-old mastermind behind the Australian psych-rock outfit Tame Impala has been toying with the ideas of randomness, turbulence, and cosmic madness ever since the release of Tame Impala’s 2010 debut LP InnerSpeaker. With Currents — Tame Impala’s third full-length — Parker has scaled down the headiness and scaled up the production, bringing the listener back down to Earth and the kind of relatable bedlams that occur in our heads everyday.
Currents finds Parker in a sort of transitional period, both musically and in his personal life, which is heavily reflected in his newest batch of lyrics. Much of the album is doused the slippery emotion that overcomes someone after a really rough breakup, with healthy portions of poetic self-deprecation and sadness running abound throughout the albums thirteen tracks. Funnily enough, however, one emotion one often feels after terminating a relationship is almost nowhere to be found: bitterness. Everything is looked upon with some tragic sense of respect; any bitterness felt by Parker is often directed at himself, as evident in tracks like “Love/Paranoia” and behind the melancholy, wilting bass lines of “’Cause I’m a Man,” in which Parker comes to terms with his own shortcomings, while also playfully using “dumb guy” stereotypes as a scapegoat to deflect some of his own apparent self-loathing. It might seem like the easy way out, but it’s understandable; it’s human. On “Yes I’m Changing” and “Eventually,” the fourth and fifth tracks of the album, Parker aims to relinquish the control he thinks he has over his circumstances, allowing sweeping epiphany to take over. In “Yes I’m Changing,” he repeats the title as a mantra; along with adding that there is “nothing [he] can do,” as he again comes to terms with limits of his own humanity. “Eventually” sees him in a more proactive light, in a way justifying his own sadness—and that of his lost partner—as the first step in the journey towards inevitably better circumstances. It takes a lot of guts to admit when things are crappy that ending something ensures that they will better off in the long run: “Said I know that I’ll be happier/And I know you will too…/Eventually.”
The album’s first track—which is also the first track to be released from the LP—“Let It Happen” serves as some kind of overture to the sort of twisted ballet that unfolds as Currents chugs along. The song begins in true Tame Impala fashion, with bright rhythmic synths and fuzzy percussion, although it is apparent right away that the production on this album is much cleaner, more polished. When the vocals/lyrics kick in, something feels slightly awry, and we hear Parker speaking to us more clearly than he ever has before. His straightforward tones bring him back down to our plane, and he is easier to understand when he says things like “Let it happen/(it’s gonna feel so good),’ and ‘something’s trying to get out/it’s never been closer.’ He is talking about finally surrendering to the nature of the moment: stop fighting, and go with the flow. “The Moment” is similar in content, as it signals a moment of clarity that is slowly approaching at its own speed after being held at arm’s length for far too long. The jaunty instrumentation mixed with the more reverberated vocals that Parker is known for make it sound like some sort of snappy acid-tinged RnB track. There is a slight sense of apprehension as the song draws closer and closer to its conclusion, with the repeated line ‘It’s getting closer’ growing louder and louder, as if the audience is Parker and Parker is the ultimate “moment” speaking to us.
“Reality in Motion” serves as the musical apex of the album, a difficult task at track number 11 but a task well done nonetheless. “Reality in Motion” sees Parker back to his old tricks–as does “The Less I Know The Better,” a funky track detailing the horrors of seeing someone you like dating someone else–providing heady grooves and eccentric imagery to bring us back between the downtrodden “Cause I’m a Man” and “Love/Paranoia.” This is a prime example of Parker’s beautiful ability to construct an album in a linear fashion. Each track plays a certain part while always filling some sort of significant purpose. The three ‘interludes’ on the album—Track #2 “Nangs” (an echoed nitrous-fueled nightmare), Track #6 “Gossip” (a fluttery instrumental track), and Track #9 “Disciples” (a ‘70s radio-inspired, stream-of-consciousness-style romp)—all serve as punctuation marks that keep the audience on their toes. Just when you think you’ve discovered what the album is all about, he throws something completely different in your direction. Like the changing speed of a river, Parker beautifully navigates the landscape of an album with epic skill.
I couldn’t say with any certainty that Currents is Tame Impala’s “best” album, and it’s not because I don’t think its brilliant (it is, and I do). One of the reasons I love Kevin Parker is that he never wants to bore his audience. He reinvented his sound and brought us into the more tangible parts of his psyche this time around, no matter how painful it may have seemed for him to do so. Parker is also a perfectionist, and it shows, as with every other Tame Impala LP. I will say that this one lets us see a side that is not often seen, even when we look inside ourselves. We hate to see the kinds of things Parker talks about as they took root within our souls. But he’s right, sometimes you just have to let it happen and go with the flow. Instead of being the rock in the river that divides the current, learn to be the water that swirls behind it after being broken, gradually uniting once more in twisted beauty further down the path.
Currents is now available via Interscope. Tame Impala has tour dates scheduled throughout North America and Europe through the fall, including stops at the Outside Lands and Austin City Limits Festivals. For more information visit their website or Facebook page.
Corey Bell
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