CD Reviews

TheSlowRush ISLAND / MODULAR

In the five years since releasing

Currents – their major breakthrough into the universal mainstream – Tame Impala (or more specifically, its main brain Kevin Parker) has gone through a monolithic shift in public personality. Parker has become pop’s go-to guy for a dose of acidic idiosyncrasy, the peculiar-minded Perthian buddying up with everyone from Mark Ronson and The Flaming Lips to Kanye West and Rihanna.

Such worldly adventures have rubbed off suitably on his main project’s unbearably long-awaited fourth LP, TheSlowRush, with a glittery, pop-consonant shimmer slicked over a solid bulk of the hourlong affair. “Is It True” could easily be a collaboration with the aforementioned Ronson, with its funky bass throbs, pulsing wah and handclaps in excess. Parker hasn’t collaborated with Daft Punk (yet, at least), but the ultra suave “Breathe Deeper”, with its creeping progression and angular, ‘80s-channelling keyboard riff, instantly throws our mind over to the French EDM duo.

At its core, TheSlowRush is unquestionably a

Tame Impala record. The gauzy, droning guitars are in full focus on early cuts like “Instant Forgiveness” and “Posthumous Forgiveness”, with the record at large quickly building on them with eccentric synths, thumping basslines and labyrinthine lashings of digital percussion. It’s a natural progression from the experimental Currents, and pitches Parker at his most confident and charged to date. He’s unafraid to dive into his inhumanly wide scope of influences, and the end result is a kaleidoscopic collision of shoegaze, soul, hip-hop and disco. Do we wish there were more guitars? Definitely – but Parker’s experimentation with electronics feels almost paradoxically natural. And, where they are the focal point, the guitar parts are always nothing short of magical.

Though we start slow, the LP gathers steam as it chugs along – by the time you reach the bright and boppy “Lost In Yesterday” (where it’s all about that prickly, punchy bass guitar), you should be dancing at your desk (or steering wheel, stereo, etc.) like you’re nine pints deep in a German nightclub where no one knows your name and ‘embarrassment’ isn’t in your vocabulary. We end on a high note with seven minutes of Tame Impala’s classic technicolour prog-pop in “One More Hour”, the good vibes as bountiful as Parker’s collection of reverb pedals.