Tame Impala - Currents

Tame Impala
Currents
2015

It feels like "I'm a Man" has been out for quite a long time but finally Tame Impala's third album Currents has been released. Tame Impala spends almost all his time alone with his music very much by design. The important thing for him is to make something perfectly crafted whichever direction that may take him. And a new direction he certainly has taken with Currents. There is almost no guitar tracks on the entire record and Tame Impala's signature bass stylings while still there are buried underneath synth tracks and are heavily distorted. It brings him into a new genre of music that not only fits him well but the transition seems almost effortless. The absolute all out disco track "Let It Happen" which opens the record signals this change and opens the listener up to what they are about to get into. At almost eight minutes including almost a minute of CD skippingesque interlude the first track changes your expectation, but never lets you down. Interestingly Tame Impala uses short tracks, less than a minute usually, to break apart different tempos on the record. They act as DJ transitions but on a much higher artistic level and make the album have a complete through line start to finish.

The vibe created by Currents is quite incredible. There is a depth to each song but there is always a lightness that keeps the music from becoming to heavy or to self aware. Despite the electronic sounds there is a totally organic feel to this record, perfect sunset/dusk music. The one track that doesn't quite fit the mold is "Past Life", the computerized speaking vocal telling a story about meeting a lover on the street clashes with the otherwise beautiful track. The story makes sense for the song, but the speaking doesn't quite make sense for the rest of the record. "Disciples" starts as a 80sish track but then snaps into focus and into modernity as if Tame Impala would ever give us something dated. "'Cause I'm a Man" one of the singles from the record could be straight off a Father John Misty record, it plays with gender, sex and love in that sarcastic way that Misty has perfected but Tame Impala does it just as well with this song. Currents may be a departure from the norm that was Tame Impala, but it is one of the best I've heard in a while. This record floats along with a beauty that artist strive for all their careers, however this feels like just the start for Tame Impala, or maybe it's a beginning and an end, only time will tell. Hipsters delight, Tame Impala is back.

9 out of 10