Three years after Lonerism's astounding and critical success, Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala is back with one of the year's most heavily-anticipated albums. Tame Impala frontman and writer/producer Kevin Parker has spent the better part of the past three years working on this new album, touring and enjoying guest features on projects with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Mark Ronson. That being said, his commitment to pleasing Tame Impala's original fans has been a wildly successful endeavor. In a Stereogum interview, Parker describes Currents as an album that "follows the progression of someone feeling like they are becoming something else."
With a whopping four pre-released singles, the countdown to Currents' July 17th release seemed to drag on for an eternity. Opening track "Let It Happen" boasts an impressive track length of nearly eight minutes and is one of the most fitting primers for the trippy adventure that follows in the next 12 tracks. The song is all about building anticipation and calculated excitement. Throughout, repetitive instrumentals and striking percussion keep you aurally fixated on its progression and fascinated by the suite's distortion and restoration at the halfway point. "Let It Happen" is a work of art that sets the bar high.
"'Cause I'm A Man" possesses the most effective bass line on the whole album. Pitchfork's Corbin Goble wrote that of all the tracks on Currents, "'Cause I'm A Man" could be "typified by the slow fingersnap funk." The music video made for the song features Muppet-esque puppets made in the likenesses of the band members. Seeming to be performing "'Cause I'm A Man" in slow motion, this puppet show suggests that the band doesn't take themselves too seriously, though seriously enough to direct a music video that required puppeteers. The song explores a level of primal acceptance of men's shortcomings in relationships, and the sheer emotion exuded in Parker's vocals leave you feeling winded.
"Eventually" is, in a way, an optimistic goodbye song. The sweeping guitar and all-encompassing synths construct a hazy world where all the alluded-to past in the song may just work out after all. "I know that I'll be happier / And I know you will, too / Eventually"is surely a more mature approach on a breakup song if ever there were one.
Each song takes you on a journey with a gradual introduction, a satisfying core, and a cathartic (though sometimes abrupt) ending. As rights management company BMG sought and settled nearly half a million dollars in unpaid royalties to Tame Impala from former label Modular Recordings, the band's name was widely used in articles about its international legal dispute instead of anticipation of this eagerly-awaited-for album. Currents is not just a musical album; it's a narrative, too. Tame Impala explores some serious emotions -- love, loss, fear, hopelessness, primitiveness -- and never manages to come off preachy. In under an hour, Tame Impala's Currents sweeps you off your feet, transports you into a psychedelic dream, and returns you as a changed person -- and for the better.
