Currents

About

Tame Impala may have been forged in the familiar fires of guitar-driven psych-rock, but Kevin Parker began expanding that brief almost immediately, shifting from dank, distorted solos to widescreen, synth-swept fantasia. By the time <i>Currents</i> arrived in 2015, the Fremantle home-studio whiz had made his grandest leap yet, offering his particular take on outsized, club-ready pop. That meant mostly sidelining guitars and ramping up the lead role of those synth. Parker had always made Tame Impala records as a solo endeavor, using a proper band primarily to realize songs in a live setting. Yet this third album saw him applying more painstaking control than ever before, not just playing and writing every single part but recording and mixing the entire thing as well. Even fans who had noticed Parker’s increasing pop sensibilities across 2012’s <i>Lonerism</i> were somewhat taken aback by <i>Currents</i>’ bravura opening statement, “Let It Happen,” an ambitious dance-floor epic that foregrounded glitter-bomb synths and alternately dipping and peaking rhythm. The band’s trajectory changed over the course of a single track, which stretches out over nearly eight minutes and indulges in remix-style record-skipping and lengthy stretches without vocal. Between the disco groove, Parker still finds time for Tame Impala’s sonic signatures—floaty vocal, soul-searching lyric, fleeting interlude. As lush as the production is (which you can hear in the joyous vocal layering and panning on “The Moment”), the increased scope of these songs is matched by the same rich emotional content, making it feel like Parker is sharing his most private moment. From the vulnerability displayed on “Yes I’m Changing,” which muses on growing older against unironic soft-rock motif, to his interrogations of masculinity and romance on “'Cause I’m a Man,” Parker is still committed to airing intimate, almost diary-like sentiment. Meditative album closer “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” says it all. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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