TAME IMPALA

The Slow Rush FICTION

Kevin Parker’s deluxe masterpiece made even more deluxe.

Kevin Parker’s footprint on popular music of the past decade is fairly sizeable. The Tame Impala linchpin has journeyed from the dense, galactic wig outs of Perth’s psych rock scene to being the go-to ‘rock’ guy for the likes of Kanye West and Lady Gaga.

Parker is an old-school studio maverick in many ways, evoking the restless, curious minds of Mike Oldfield and Todd Rundgren (who remixed Tame Impala’s Elephant in 2012). And like them, he’s looking not just to dabble in, but master various genres of music. Hence 2020’s The Slow Rush,

Parker’s attempt to find a connection between 60s psych rock, psychedelia and cosmic electronic music.

Many of Tame Impala’s older fans thought it was a step too far. Superficially, it sounded like music for futuristic dancefloors – space-age disco with no sharp edges at all. There was certainly a huge gulf between it and Tame Impala’s psych-centric debut Innerspeaker or 2012’s Lonerism.

But, as Parker has noted, prog is in its DNA. It’s evident in the song structures – opener One More Year, for example, is not really pop at all as it meanders and shifts over its six minutes. Elsewhere, It Might Be Time opens like a lost Supertramp single. Parker plays his “dorky, white disco-funk” throughout; there is rigour in its repetition and wave upon wave of keyboards (if there’s a criticism, it’s that a lack of grit in the oyster tends towards a homogeny at times).

Lyrically, The Slow Rush ruminates on the passage of time, reflects on growing older and highlights emotions around bereavement. Parker is unafraid to stray into raw feelings and their potential for attendant awkwardness. When he mourns his father on Posthumous Forgiveness with lyrics such as: ‘The time that I had Mick Jagger on the phone – I thought of you when we spoke’ his sincerity alleviates any gaucheness.

Here, in an expanded box set – remixes, transparent red vinyl, alternate artwork, booklet and 2050 calendar – its cosmic cruiser yacht rock has a distinctly progressive feel in its sound washes and intent. And if Parker’s cross-genre tendencies are not apparent already, the set’s eight bonus tracks include remixes from electronic wizard Four Tet, indie R&B star Blood Orange and rapper Lil Yachty.

None of this will bring back those fans gave up on Tame Impala around 2015’s pop-leaning Currents. But there’s a spirit of adventure to The Slow Rush that goes back to Parker’s prog/ psych roots – and if the album doesn’t offer the same immersive listen something like The Dark Side Of The Moon,

then nothing does. Like many of the great albums, it will reveal its secrets to the patient and the open-minded.

PROG IS IN ITS DNA – IT’S EVIDENT IN THE SONG STRUCTURES.