By now, you know that Kevin Parker doesn’t do things by half.
The Perth born stoner stepped onto the Aussie music scene with Tame Impala’s 2010 debut
Innerspeaker , followed up by the acclaimed
Lonerism , which had music writers in square glasses and hand knitted jumpers raving.
Lonerism is, overall, more psychedelic and far-out-there than its predecessor but its most recognised track ‘Elephant’ has since become one of the most exquisite radio singles in modern Australian pop – and with its simple hook and perfect pop sensibilities, it made no pretences of hiding that.
So what can we expect from
Currents ? Will Kevin Parker burrow down the rabbit hole of his psychedelic leanings or will it be closer to pop? Ultimately,
Currents is not the answer to this dilemma. It is the tension-building bridge between question and answer.
‘Electronics’ is the genre buzzword for Kevin Parker’s latest project but it’s clear that he considered ‘space’ to be the operative term for
Currents . Hooks are rare and in their place are the hi-tech keys and synths of Jay Watson and Dominic Simper. Drummer Julian Barbagallo gets a back seat role with the occasional driving convention but he’s mostly pushed out of the way as Parker continues his one-man war against the logical flow of time.
Lead-off track ‘Let It Happen’ is precise and economical, fusing a groovy distance between the blissed out keyboards and Parker’s spacey vocal. Sonically, it’s one of Tame Impala’s most sophisticated songs yet, complete with Parker’s most elegant espousal of jaded disillusion to date: “All this running around/Trying to cover my shadow/An ocean growing inside/All the others seem shallow.”
In many ways, ‘Let It Happen’ – all 466 seconds of it – is the logical progression from
Lonerism but that doesn’t make it a let-down (ironically the most unexpected song, ‘Nangs’, a generic Latin effort, is the album’s low point).
There is nothing here that even suggests Parker attempted a follow up to ‘Elephant’ – the most accessible tracks are ‘’Cause I’m A Man’, ‘New Person, Same Old Mistakes’ and ‘Disciples’, which sound more like ‘80s dance numbers than their predecessor’s heavy guitar rock.
If we’re to put a punt on any of these songs being a single, ‘Eventually’ is putting its hand up highest. On a sparse album that bears only passing resemblance to Tame Impala’s previous work, ‘Eventually’, particularly in its hip verses, has the most familiar sound and dynamics.
Parker as a lyricist is yet to expand beyond moderately thought provoking lamentations of day-to-day societal norms and still has a sweet tooth for ‘I-wonder-what-this-button-does’ oddities. Both flaws come home to roost in ‘Yes I’m Changing’, which awkwardly sits between
Low -era Bowie and
Pop -era U2, but he actually manages to make the quirk work on ‘The Less I Know The Better’, whose off-hand charm suggests that Parker can do light hearted whimsy better than we expected.
In an interview with The Age writer Mark Dapin, published in late June, Parker said
Currents is "an album about being an introvert, separated from the rest of society... more about feeling yourself change as a person and wanting to become part of the world".
On ‘Past Life’, the mix of expansive synths, automaton vocals and Parker’s reflections of today’s humdrum and the wonders of tomorrow’s untapped possibilities. It fits
Currents – an album that only whets the appetite for what Parker will do next – very nicely indeed.
