Some artists create music to enhance the environment around them, adding context and colour to the passage of time. Kevin Parker, frontman of Australian psych-wanderers Tame Impala, sonically lassoes his listeners’ total attention. Tumbling down a wormhole of delicious, imaginatively nonsensical music, their sound breaks down the barriers separating reality from dreams, hallucinations and forgotten memories.
‘Currents’ emphasises the band’s signature laid back, tripped out themes, simultaneously portraying love, loss, hope, youth and spirit. Written and recorded auteur style at Parker’s Perth base in the aftermath of a break up, it’s both intimate and emotionally engaging. The lyrics unfurl in a fragile, diary-like fashion, retelling doubts, resentment, sadness and passion from the perspective of a person changing and, later, leaving.
He opens with a lullaby, Let It Happen, on which the lyrics build like an internal monologue: “Let it happen, all this running around, trying to cover my shadow, notion growing inside all the earth is too shallow.”
Paving the way for the inevitable end to this relationship, the LP progresses stridently to The Moment, which expresses a sense of freedom and a new found identity in that moment of opening up to the potential of unknown horizons. The landscapes wind in and out of each other dynamically to a heavy, hymn-like climax that ends abruptly.
I’m Changing tells of moving on, expressing a sense of guilt and slow moving hesitancy. The beauty in the song’s tragedy is the glimpse of hope the fragmented background synths offer behind its lyrics: “There's a new future for me and you, there's nothing I can do. Don’t be blue, I think there are versions of me I’ve found at last.”
This is a story that every human who has loved, and then encouraged loss, has experienced. Taking leave of the more traditional viewpoint of the lover spurned, this is a painful, but brave, emotional photograph of how it feels to wound the person you once cared about the most. Past Life is a clever ode to justifying it all and simply surrendering to tomorrow’s unknown.
An album best experienced alone, the strength of ‘Currents’ is how deeply it transfixes the listener. This a journey to be travelled in one sitting, with each of its constituent parts given the correct context. Listen carefully, open your heart and this mind-expanding album will affect you on many levels.
Tame Impala Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue September 08 2015 - GLASGOW Barrowland
Wed September 09 2015 - LIVERPOOL Olympia
Click here to compare & buy Tame Impala Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
.jpg)
