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Tame Impala
Currents
Interscope, 2015
6.0
When Tame Impala
released "Let It Happen" in early March, announcing the 2015 release
of their third album and North American tour, it felt momentous: a band making
the leap from "really good" to something special. Two albums of
immaculate, distinctive, but relatively safe, psychedelic rock had cemented
their place in the indie music consciousness and on the festival circuit, but
the eight minute space pop roller coaster that somehow served as Currents' first single signaled that Kevin Parker and co. had something more
ambitious planned than a third version of the same album.
Just as it was piece of
the new album we heard, "Let It Happen" is the first thing you hear
when you play the album, and it remains as thrilling now as it was on that
March afternoon. It immediately tells you what to expect from Currents: approximately five times as
many different synth sounds as guitar sounds (it's not until the 6-and-a-half
minute mark that we hear our first guitar, playing a fuzzy riff that bounces
sharply through the airy synth pads), more of Parker's falsetto than his
full-voiced John Lennon impression, and Parker's entire growing arsenal of
studio tricks, from the low pass filters that put the drums briefly underwater,
to the breakdown that sticks the looping button in the "on" position
to simulate the effect of a record skipping in time, while cinematic strings
swell ominously upwards. It's an exhilarating joyride that weaves its way
through time and space over its full eight minute runtime, but it's also the
high-water mark of the album, and many of its most exciting implications go
unexplored over the rest of an ambitious effort that ultimately feels like a
big swing and a miss for an obviously talented creator.
Parker is embracing the
role he's always felt best suited for: producer, rather than bandleader. And Currents sounds more the work of a producer
than a band: layered synths and finger snaps abound in place of Lonerism and Innerspeaker's trademark fuzzy drums and reverb-laden guitars. Parker
had always done the majority of the work on Tame Impala's albums by himself,
but on Currents he fully wrote,
recorded, performed, produced, and mixed the album alone. Fundamentally, it's
an album about change, the evolution of the band's sound explored obliquely
through the loose narrative of the dissolution of a romantic relationship. "Let
It Happen" sets the stage in outer space; "Nangs," Australian
slang for nitrous oxide hits, floats back down through the upper atmosphere in
a laughing gas-induced haze of intoxication, as Parker softly intones "Is
there something wrong man?" over whirring synths and a sedate bassline,
before fading out as quickly as a nitrous hit. "Moment" hints at
"storm clouds approaching," while a bouncy drum beat bolstered by a
clap track and an easy bass line rocks easily back and forth. It's the first
moment on the album that's really representative of what's to come,
establishing the 80s soul and pop groove that Currents leans on. "Yes I'm Changing" doubles down on
this feel, settling into a slow R&B groove with glossy, shimmering synth
pads, while Parker makes really, really sure everyone understands that people
(and bands) change: "they say that people never change but that's bullshit
/ they do."
If Currents is a breakup record, then "Eventually" is the
actual moment of division, and its emotional core. Unfortunately, like so many
breakup talks, it's a clumsy mission statement. The chorus is intended to be the
album's grand moment of catharsis, as Parker sings "But I know that I'll
be happier / And I know you will too / Eventually" but it moves awkwardly, mimicking the staggering gait of a shopping
cart with a chunk missing from one wheel. It's still a massive moment of
release and you can already picture the crowd's hand swaying in time to the
slow drum beat, lit up by the multicolored lights of the disco ball, but it
feels weirdly labored for a band to whom it always seemed to come so easily.
"Eventually"
isn't the biggest whiff on the album, though: that goes to inexplicable single
"'Cause I'm A Man," which is, musically, a slow burning R&B jam,
and lyrically a lazy "boys will be boys" portrait of masculinity at
best, and a misguided nod to the regressive bullshit of evolutionary psychology
at worst. The chorus of "Cause I'm a man, woman / I don't think, I just
do" is frankly cringe-inducing and there's nothing interesting enough to
ignore the lyrics in favor of. Fortunately, it more evokes the concept of
masculinity than it actually dives into analyzing it; as it is, it's the
biggest misstep of the album.
This is the frustrating
part of Parker's lyrics on Currents:
there's little nuance and less specificity. Take "Past Lives," which skips
ahead in the breakup narrative, to a point where Parker, narrating through pitched
down vocals, has kind of come to terms and moved on ("I've got a pretty
solid routine these days"), until he sees "my lover / from a past
life" while picking up his dry cleaning and is jolted back into old memories
and thoughts of rekindling his old romance. As with all of his descriptions of
the breakup, his thoughts are familiar to everyone who has ended a
relationship: "I mean, I don't even know if she has the same phone
number...what's the worst that could happen?" This is basically everyone's
breakup cycle and yes, that makes it easily relatable to the casual listener,
but that also keeps it from being anything else, much less insightful or, well,
interesting.
There are bright spots,
though. On "The Less I Know The Better" a jaunty bass line provides
some bounce and direction to the bright, glamorous synths that populate the
rest of the album. It's easily the most successful take on the 80s soul and
funk that Parker has splashed throughout Currents,
owing largely to the vocal melody on the chorus as Parker sings "I was
doing fine without you / til I saw your face," which serves as a reminder
that Tame Impala's greatest strength has always been the ease Parker settles
into the perfect melody that sounds both familiar and brand new. Special praise
here is owed to Parker for recycling the bell synth leads from Siouxsie and the
Banshees' "Cities In Dust" to great effect.
"Reality In
Motion" provides a much-needed palette cleanser following "'Cause I'm
A Man." The drum fills leading into the chorus, as Parker sings
"there's no one else aROUND youuu" are vintage Tame Impala and
another reminder of how good they are when they're on. "Disciples,"
driven by a catchy falsetto melody with AM radio style production that gets
turned on and off at the flip of a
switch, feels like it has the same kind of potential, but fades out
frustratingly quickly, before reaching the two minute mark.
The album trudges
forgettably to its conclusion on "Love/Paranoia," which finds Parker
still stewing in the ashes of his breakup with his many synth pads, and
"New Person, Same Old Mistakes," which solidifies the album's theme
of transformation through the ending of a relationship, emerging as a new
person who is still not all that different from the old. There's an obvious
application to the band's stylistic shift from guitar-driven psych rock to
synth-laden R&B, soul, and funk, and you get the sense Parker is self-conscious
about the change, going so far as to structure his album around justifying it.
He clearly understood he would alienate the fans who just wanted Tame Impala to
continue releasing the same album over and over again; these are the same fans
who comment on YouTube videos of classic rock bands that no one makes
"real music" these days. It feels a bit unnecessary; if the songs are
good enough, the instrumentation and influences won't matter.
And ultimately, the
songs are a mixed bag. Most frustrating are the three truncated interludes
which hinted at quality songs buried, if fully explored. Releasing the two
weakest tracks on the album as the second and third singles is just confusing.
And then "Let It Happen" is still otherworldly, accompanied by other
moments of brilliance scattered throughout the rest of the album. Currents isn't a classic and it doesn't
need to be; it's an intriguing if uneven
exploration of new territory for Parker, whose future output will be better for
having made this album.
