Australia's Tame Impala are rapidly making a case for them being the future of modern psychedelic rock while still being very much indebted to its past. This is the sort of band that took 'Strawberry Fields Forever' as a touch point for their entire career and it appears to be paying dividends. Their debut album made major waves around the world and earned them supporting slots with the likes of The Flaming Lips, Mars Volta, and MGMT; the reigning pantheon of psych weirdness. This year sees the release of their highly anticipated sophomore record, Lonerism. Can Tame Impala break new ground and avoid the deadly second album slump?
Lonerism is an album full of
gorgeous, cinematic compositions flawlessly executed. If all of this
is sounding a bit familiar that's because it actually is. This same
description applies equally to their 2010 debut Innerspeaker as
it does here two years later. None of it is actually bad, just a
little unsurprising which is dangerous territory when your sonic
approach involves shocking the senses. The much lauded John Lennon /
Beatles schtick is particularly thick on the album's closing piano
ballad 'Sun's Coming Up (Lambingtons)' although it a very solid
track. There is no doubt that Tame Impala are good at this style of
languid, echo-chamber psychedelic rock – but can they progress
beyond it? This is a question that the album unfortunately does not
get around to answering. Even though Tame Impala seem to have a well
defined “comfort zone” to their sound they are certainly not
above kicking against it from time to time. Opening track 'Be Above
It' is a genuine shock to the senses – reverberating percussion,
synth stabs, and the breathless mantra “gotta be above it”
hammering away. Another standout track is the brutish 'Elephant' that
rides a Black Sabbath worthy bass line and a new wave beat for a song
that is bizarre as well as heavy. What a triumph! It is moments like
this that remind the listener what the band could do if they really
put their minds to it.
What certainly helps in my enjoyment of
this album (and the band in general) is how much they buck the trend
of their home country's attitude towards rock music, which is usually
a very white bread affair. Isn't it nice to hear an Aussie band that
isn't aping either AC/DC or Jimmy Barnes for once? Vocalist Kevin
Parker might never live down the comparison to a certain John Lennon,
and there is quite a good chance that the band will always sound a
bit like Sweden's Dungen. Ultimately all that matters is that they
keep making good albums like Lonerism, the people keep lapping
them up, and we encourage them to keep pushing further into space.
Rating: B-
Recommended tracks: Be Above It,
Elephant
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