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4. Currents - Tame Impala (2015)
Psychedelic Pop
The best Australian album of the 2010s belongs, pretty definitively, to Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala. It’s no small title to hold after a decade that saw the wild, global success of a number of Australian artists including Chet Faker, Sia, Flume and many others. Tame Impala’s third album, Currents, was nothing short of monumental. One of the most telling markers of musical greatness is the ability to create something capable of cultivating massive critical and popular appeal that is also decidedly outside the bounds of convention. Currents is a perfect example.
Breaking drastically with earlier stylings, Parker shifted gears with Currents, setting aside the guitar-driven psychedelic rock of previous albums in favor of a much more synth-forward aesthetic. The album has a poppier, dancier feel by design, as Parker had aspirations of hearing his music in club settings. While far from being a “dance” album, the pacing and structure of Currents, in tandem with its predominantly airy and luminous instrumentation, certainly avails itself to that type of setting.
In terms of vocal performance, Parker’s trademark falsetto is front and center on the ultra-groovy single “The Less I Know The Better”, which quickly became his most memorable song, supplanting the eminently catchy Lonerism standout “Elephant”. For an artist known predominantly for his production chops, Parker displays an impressive vocal range on the album, and uses these vocals cleverly to accentuate and build off his underlying sonic amalgamation. Unquestionably the most noteworthy characteristic of Currents is the profound and enigmatic depth of the sound itself. There’s a euphoric sense of being enveloped, of being sucked into a realm fashioned entirely of the meticulously crafted layers of synths. There are palpable disco influences at work on “Let It Happen”, the lush seven-minute opener, which also showcases the album’s complex, multi-dimensional dynamic. As the synth-wave subsides midway through the first verse and the drums are sent to the far-off reaches of audible territory, a second string of melody makers is summoned gradually to the foreground. As this happens, there is a real sense of physically witnessing the undulation taking place. This phenomenon is especially evident during live performances. I saw Tame Impala perform much of the album in May of 2015, a couple months before its release. From the literal back row of the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, it was mind-blowing the extent to which I could physically feel these transitions roll over me in waves. I had never experienced anything like it.
As alluded to by its iconic artwork, one of the major themes of the album is change. Many of the tracks not-so-subtly hint at the termination of an ill-fated relationship and signify mechanisms of dealing with various stages of the aftermath. Affirmations abound on “Let It Happen” which concludes with the reassurance that now is the time to move on. “Yes I’m Changing” is an astute and candid assessment of self and situation which results in some of the sad sort of realizations that are common during the death throes of long-standing intimate relationships. “The Less I Know The Better” reminisces on the birth of the relationship with fond appreciation before giving way to the trippy “Past Life”. The gorgeous track plays like an interlude as it details a story of a man catching a glimpse of a lover from a past life in a rear view mirror and the impact of the experience. Closing track “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” somewhat surprisingly ends the album with a heavy dose of stark reality after several tracks of unfettered optimism. On it, Parker reflects on the frustrations of succumbing to the same trappings that ensnared him in the past and the deluge of negative emotions that acknowledging this tendency brings. But, as with the rest of the album, there is a deep wisdom and uncanny knack for accurate and meaningful self-assessment, which can ultimately only ever prove helpful, no matter the trial or tribulation.
Truly a landmark achievement from a production standpoint and a moving, largely hopeful message to aching hearts, Currents will undoubtedly be increasingly influential as time passes, inspiring new generations of trailblazing music producers to break the mold and challenge convention in new and interesting ways.
*image; cover art for the album Currents by Tame Impala