From head to toe, Tame Impala’s new album, “Currents”, comes dripping with feelings. From pent-up apologies and regrets to frustrated explanations and changes, you’d think that this album was locked in a cage for years, growing more and more emotional and just dying to be released. But its conception was a bit of a surprise to everyone, including the band. With their past two albums proven as major successes, Tame Impala struck gold once more with their trademark psychrock sound, earning admirable critical reception and a sturdier following. They masterfully collect their feelings into a gorgeous 13 track piece and show us exactly how it’s done.
Eventually (track no.5) along with The Less I Know the Better (no.7) are the only two songs on this album that truly go back to basic Impala with their Innerspeakeresque guitar and riffheavy verses. But what makes them unique to “Currents” is the infusion of trance and its consistent presence throughout the track as well as the depth of the song’s meaning. Eventually does this particularly well. According to the band’s front man and founder, Kevin Parker, Eventually is about “knowing that you’re about to damage someone almost irreparably, and the only consolation you get is this distant hope that they’ll be alright eventually, because you know they aren’t going to be now or soon.” Easily, this track became one of my favorites off the listing because it effortlessly places the sad act of consoling yourself after knowing you hurt someone underneath the hardhitting, energetic distortion you hear. You can feel sadness disguised as happiness most notably at the beginning and also throughout the song, “I said I know that I’ll be happier, and I know you will too, eventually…”
Someone had to say Cause I’m a Man (track no. 10) and Tame Impala does it in a chromatic trance signature to their classic 60’s psychrock style. It sets you down in the middle of a summer afternoon with its easygoing riffs, like dissipating rays of sunlight. I remember listening to this track for the first time on my way back from class last spring semester, when it was a single. When it came on, all I’d wanted to do was run out into an open field and lay in the grass to tell my spirit to leave my body and pursue the sky, content that this song even existed. It manages to overtake your mind and slow down your thought process to the consistency of maple syrup. And if that weren’t enough already, this track clears up nearly all of our confusion about the male species with the achy mantra: “‘Cause I’m a man, woman/ don’t always think before I do.” Well said Tame Impala, well said.
If you haven’t already dived into the dysfunctional world of psychedelic rock, think of Tame Impala and “Currents” as your way in. Their style is loaded and not very simple, but completely worth the hour you’ll spend with this album.