Deadbeat - Tame Impala: Review
Tame Impala is one of the most beloved indie bands of the past 15 years. It's the project of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer extraordinaire Kevin Parker. While the second Tame Impala record, Lonerism, remains their peak of critical success, its follow-up, Currents, embraced a psychedelic pop style that introduced the band to an entirely new fanbase. In the years since, songs like “The Less I Know The Better” and “Let It Happen” have been cemented as modern indie classics. Despite that, the band's 4th album was met with mixed reviews, though I came away liking the record more than most critics. Deadbeat has taken an even harsher critical beating than its predecessor, but this time I completely agree.
Not to say this record is a complete waste. The lead single “End Of Summer” still works for me. It reminds me of many great, lengthy Tame Impala songs before it, with the way it transitions from one infectious segment to another effortlessly. But it's the third single, “Dracula,” that stole the show. It's an absolutely killer single and still my favorite song on the album. The way Kevin morphs his sound into something nocturnal that matches the theme of the track more than his usual sunniness sounds great, and the song is one of the biggest earworms I've heard all year.
As the years have gone by, Tame Impala has shifted further away from the garage rock of its origin and closer to psychedelic pop. To say that shift hasn't been popular with die-hard fans would be an understatement. But now, in a move that's magnitudes more unpopular, Parker is fully embracing dance music. In his defense, it gets off to a decent start. opener “My Old Ways” plays directly into this subversion, waiting until the absolute perfect moment to introduce the dance beat it's built around. It's an instant highlight that is unfortunately never really matched by any of the other deep cuts.
The most direct indulgence into the new dance style comes on the 8-minute house jam “Ethereal Connection.” While it isn't mind-blowing for any fans of the genre, I do think the song at least proves it belongs. It adds a really welcome variety to the compositional style of the tracklist, and the length of the song goes by in a dance breeze. The only other deep cuts I have positive thoughts on are “Piece Of Heaven” and ‘Afterthought.” The former gets off to a slow start but eventually hits a great sonic peak in the second half with refrains looping over each other in a psychedelic haze. The latter has rather dry verses but eventually picks up steam into an utterly infectious hook and great bridge that helped make it much more memorable.
As far as highlights go, that's all I have to offer. The decent start the record gets off to falls apart when it hits “No Reply,” which has nothing to offer but a comically bad Family Guy line. Two tracks later, we run into “Loser,” the weak link of the three singles. The lack of any meaningful development to the instrumental on the track is an achilles heel that the forgettable refrains just can't overcome.
More than being bad in interesting or distinct ways, Deadbeat is paralyzingly boring. The trio of “Oblivion,” “Obsolete,” and “See You On Monday” represents some of the most nothing songs I've ever heard Kevin Parker write. They're also unfortunately spaced out in just the right way that the album never stays interesting for very long. The absolute peak of this phenomenon is “Not My World.” It's a song that almost feels like an experiment in minimalism belonging to another artist entirely. But within the track list of a Tame Impala album, it feels like a new level of flavorless emptiness.
Last year, I was shocked when pop star Dua Lipa released her Kevin Parker-co-produced album Radical Optimism, and it was an absolute snooze. I'm not surprised anymore. Whatever has happened in the past 5 years has whittled down Parker's artistic ambitions to the dullest of edges. I don't hate the concept of the project moving in a dancier direction, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The saving graces of the record include largely avoiding any duds so spectacular they're crippling, and having Kevin's sense of songwriting occasionally shine through. It's not much, but it's something. 4.5/10
