Combining the electronic psychedelia of Currents with ruminations on time slipping by, your future self will thank you for giving The Slow Rush a listen.
It wasn’t as easy for indie rock bands to generate hype in the 2010s as it was in the 2000s, but Tame Impala managed it. Their 2012 album Lonerism was a critical success, and their 2015 album Currents was a commercial one. Even more impressively, while Tame Impala play as a band live, everything heard on their albums is the result of one man: Kevin Parker. He managed to upend the indie scene in the 2010s, but could he continue this into the 2020s? Could Tame Impala still hope to have the same degree of relevance, or would they live in the shadow of past achievements? If there are going to be even fewer indie rock success stories in the 2020s, does any of this matter?
The Slow Rush is the type of album to inspire these kinds of existential questions. It asks “what are you doing with your life, and how did you get here?” on nearly every track, with its entrancing sounds adding to the mystique. Yet the music is much more familiar, modestly expanding upon the electronic psychedelia style heard on the high-production Currents. Parker may sing as if he’s at a crossroads on The Slow Rush, but the album’s finesse shows his enduring confidence.
Tame Impala have consistently been labeled “psychedelic,” and The Slow Rush has just enough of the trappings to maintain this nebulous, 60s-rooted categorization. “One More Year” opens the album with a heavily distorted voice chanting the track’s title, the last word ominously drawn out. The sprawling “Posthumous Forgiveness” is a haze of guitar and electronic effects, occasionally recalling the glitch sounds of Currents’ “Let it Happen.” “On Track” makes ample use of a fader, while “Is it True” ends its chorus with acid house synths. Gentle acoustic guitar plucking forms the foundation of “Tomorrow’s Dust,” as psychedelic synths swirl about. It’s a type of psychedelic music all Parker’s own, even if there’s nothing on the album that would make your Cream or Hendrix-loving dad say “now this is music!” (like, for example, Lonerism’s “Mind Mischief).”
Despite these psychedelic effects, The Slow Rush will find some detractors among Tame Impala originalists. Tame Impala’s full-length debut Innerspeaker and follow-up Lonerism were both heavily indebted to classic rock psychedelia, whereas Currents was much more electronic-oriented. This is again the case with The Slow Rush, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Currents, albeit with even more audible production. “Instant Destiny” immediately starts with Parker singing in falsetto, echoing the Currents track “Disciples.” However, “Instant Destiny” is a little jazzier, and honestly reminds me of mid-2000s Kanye West. The single “Lost in Yesterday” has the same funky bass as the infectious Currents single “The Less I Know the Better,” and leads into the similarly bass-heavy “Is It True.” I liked Currents and all, and at the time even called it the second best album of 2015, but The Slow Rush could have done with a little more differentiation from its predecessor.
What is new on The Slow Rush is an unexpected tilt into dance music. Tame Impala’s music has always been lively, and Currents had some tracks that could get you moving, but they’ve never overtly employed dancefloor techniques like this before. “Borderline” is loaded with enough drum and bass that it could have been a hip-hop track if you took away Parker’s vocals. “One More Year” sneaks in the electric piano chords of a 90s dance track, while “Breathe Deeper” brings them to the spotlight. The latter even tacks on a minute-long outro of pure electronica to solidify the album’s danceitude, making it one of the most ear-catching tracks on The Slow Rush. “It Might be Time” takes a similar approach, with a new wave keyboard melody and siren-like synthesizer effects, all over pounding drums giving it the most explosive chorus on the album. The shortest song “Glimmer” is essentially two minutes of dance beats, and sounds more like fellow Aussies Cut Copy or Miami Horror than Tame Impala. It’s a fun interlude, but is best kept as such.
As mentioned above, almost every track on The Slow Rush touches on the passage of time as a lyrical motif. The album art is a photo from the ghost town Kolmanskop in Namibia, whose buildings are slowly being swallowed by the desert, fitting the theme well. Sometimes, Parker sings of existential dread. For instance, the infectious melody of “It Might Be Time” hides an anxiety over aging, exemplified by chorus lines of “it ain’t as fun as it used to be” and “you ain’t as cool as you used to be.” Parker contemplates his future self on “Tomorrow’s Dust,” with the lyrics: “There’s no use trying to relate to that older soul/And no use biding your time if the bell is tolled.”
Despite these sobering ruminations, Parker mostly sounds like he’s made peace with his past, present, and future self. “Lost in Yesterday” is all about not dwelling on memories, and “Instant Destiny” sums up his views on his marriage as “YOLO.” He starts “On Track” by recalling his setbacks, before realizing “but strictly speaking I’m still on track” and “all of my dreams are still in sight.” “One More Hour” seems like it will close the album on a somber note, as Parker reflects on his past over minimal synthesizer and crashing guitars to ratchet up the tension. Three-quarters the way through, though, the track’s tone shifts dramatically into one of hope, as Parker sings heartwarming lines like “I’m with you and I can roll into another year.”
It’s easy to knock Parker’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed optimism, especially when Parker’s annotations for each track on Genius read like inspirational quotes (Sample: “Our book needs more chapters. Our time here is short, let’s make it count”). He at least comes off as sincere and earnest throughout. That said, one recurring issue on Currents was his lack of a way with words, which persists on The Slow Rush. “Is It True” might be the worst offender, summarizing talk of everlasting love with: “We started talkin’ ’bout the future/’Bout the notion I was motioning.” He might have a positive outlook on “One More Year,” but by the time he sings “one more year of living like the free spirit I want to be” you’ll think “yeah we get it.” The sentiment is there, but the execution is sometimes lacking.
Admittedly, The Slow Rush isn’t for everybody. The hype surrounding Tame Impala could make new listeners think “that’s it?” while others might tune out of its hazy psychedelia. Devotees of Tame Impala’s first two albums will again be disappointed that it’s even more highly-produced than Currents and moves further away from 60s rock. If you’ve stuck with Kevin Parker since 2015 though, you’re in luck. It’s tempting to call The Slow Rush “Currents, but dancier,” yet that would be an oversimplification. Parker is in top form here, and you can tell he took his time (pun intended) to make it exactly what he envisioned – delays be damned. Listen to The Slow Rush and your future self will thank you.
You must be logged in to post a comment.