Currents (2015) | Currents (2015) | Posthumous Forgiveness (2019) | Lonerism (2012) | Currents (2015) |
For those who may not know yet; Tame Impala is technically just one person. Tame Impala is an Australian pop project led by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, who writes, records, performs, and produces the music. As a touring act, Parker (guitar, vocals) plays alongside Dominic Simper (guitar, synthesiser) and some members of Australian psychedelic rock band Pond – Jay Watson (synthesiser, vocals, guitar), Cam Avery (bass guitar, vocals), and Julien Barbagallo (drums, vocals). As such, despite large contributions from the members of Pond (a band you should check out for sure). The only true member is in fact Kevin Parker. Tame Impala's music genre falls under Psychedlic Rock/Psychedlic Pop and I can assure you, the music videos really reflect that.
Currents is a jewel of this decade and is filled excellent songs end to end and it's honestly a shame I'll only be able to talk about three of them. First up is Yes I'm Changing. Yes I'm Changing is audibly slower then the rest of the tracks on this album but this tempo help lends to the airy feeling of the song but the melodic backing and steady rhythm help create a beautiful piece that meshes well in the pyschedelic album of Currents.
Tame Impala fans should not be surprised to see The Less I Know The Better on this list. The signature hook has been played just shy of 500 million times on Spotify alone. The Less I know the Better is eternally timeless with it's insanely catchy bassline and high ranged vocals. It's also in possession of a notoriously strange music video which I have chosen not to link due to the nature of this being a school assignment.
In more recent years Tame Impala has graced us with Posthumous Forgiveness, which at the time of writing is only a single and without the home of an album. Posthumous Forgiveness holds a bit of similarity with Childish Gambino's Redbone in the backing melody but the true gem of the song is it's key change four minutes into the song. It almost feels like a transition into a different song. Yet this latter part is what puts the finishing touch on Posthumous Forgiveness.
Prior to Currents, the most well known Tame Impala song came from the breakout album Lonerism. Of course this would be Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards was somethign so new to the scene. To listeners around the world it was the first mainstage appearance of psychadelic pop/rock. And people loved it. If you took the time to watch the video above then I really don't need to explain why it held such a connotation. Parker's mellow singing matched with synthesized echoing adds to the airiness of the piece and has helped the song become a staple in Tame Impala's cocnert setlists.