The Slow Rush by Tame Impala
The green, orange, blue, purple, lime, kaleidoscopic synesthesia is familiar. The pulsating bass line that prominently boasts on the beat is less. The same soprano voice that used to be sprinkled like salt is now the salmon it was meant to cure. And the progression from 1967 to 1977 has completed. Psychedelia is the frame in which Tame Impala plays and that is how we can trace band proprietor Kevin Parker’s progression. Album over album we’ve seen more elements of dance coming in and stretches of The Slow Rush are groovy enough for Studio 54’s heyday. Listen to the flute come in at 1:19 on track 3 Borderline if you have any doubts of that.
The well-layered music also carries varying tones with influences that abound and deftly cross between genre and era: From the bass line on Borderline, to the synth on Posthumous Forgiveness, to the dream pop keys and reverb on Breathe Deeper. Tame Impala keeps expanding the breadth of sound that pours out of their speakers.
Along with expanding their sonic foci, Tame Impala boldly revisits some audacious styles. Track 5 Posthumous Forgiveness employs the delicate move of a two part song, like their epic 2015 single Let It Happen. The stop and go beat change maneuver is kind of rare, and if a bold song can pull it off, it’s often considered a classic. Some examples include The Weeknd’s House of Baloons-Glass Table Girls or McCartney’s Band on the Run. On Posthumous Forgiveness, it’s a valiant gamble that doesn’t quite hit the mark, like the Raiders going for it on 4th and 10, and only getting 9. It feels like it would have worked better as two separate songs or just differently.
However, the high musical IQ is undeniable. Music isn’t a state, it’s a flow, which, like a river, finds itself coming from its rapturous zenith and trickles to various tributaries that all feel and look differently. Tame Impala recognizes that and wants to see what those tributaries sound like.
Kevin Parker continues to explore new corners of his now-familiar imagination. Past albums centered on emotions like love and loneliness. The Slow Rush has some of the same, but begins to explore more life philosophies. This album isn’t as gritty as the ones that came before and the philosophies are about topics that could have great depth, but don’t feel like we ever quite get to the part of the pool where we can’t stand up anymore.
The sunny album straddles between being for a good time and being contemplative. Its lack of focus on either prevents it from fully achieving either, although it gets close. It’s good music. It’s fun, interesting, creative, and authentic. I almost wonder why it isn’t better then. I think the talent hasn’t waned, but it lacks the pain that made previous albums more genuinely powerful and interesting. It explores a curiosity without exploring a wound. For that, I am happy for Tame Impala because it seems like a good place to personally be in.
It is a solid album that is steeped in sounds I enjoyed on previous outputs, but doesn’t recapture the psychedelic edge that previously lent Tame Impala some rock star ethos. Maybe if they kept at it, this album would have just felt tired; a fate that’s befallen many bands unable to metamorphosize as their catalogs grow. It is perhaps wise to have avoided that, and an audacious show of musical ability. I will likely continue to replay in the coming months, but in a year or two, it is more likely I will forget about it.
Rating: 7.5/10
