Tame Impala’s Currents might have been the album closest to sonic perfection in 2015. The funniest part was I didn’t prefer it to Tame’s 2012 album Lonerism. It took about two or three months and a powerful performance at this year’s Lollapalooza for me to really buy into the Currents groove. The album kicks off with arguably its best song in “Let It Happen”, a song Kevin Parker (who does all the writing, playing, recording, and most of the mastering himself) described as “the soundtrack of internal struggle”. An almost 8 minute run time, “Let It Happen” takes you through several twists and turns, beginning with an almost EDM vibe and eventually blossoming into a powerful, full rock ballad.
Yes, I was a Tame Impala fan going into this album, but I believe someone could embrace it like I could without knowing anything of the group prior. Kevin Parker created a rock album perfectly dancey enough to thrive in 2015. The driving groove on Currents takes many forms over its 13 songs. On “The Less I Know The Better”, Parker reminds us of how he’s quietly become one of the best rock bassists over his last three releases. “Cause I’m A Man”, a slow motion ballad revolving around the rudeness of the male sex, is the perfect song for sway-dancing with a love interest in your living room after a long night of drinking. The album’s last song “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” sounds something like a slowed down boy band track from the early 2000’s (I mean that in the best way possible).
Currents is one of my favorite projects of 2015 because it almost demands to be listened to in its entirety. It’s constant evolution keeps you on your seat, always catching new features of the music you didn’t notice the listen before. What’s most impressive about Currents is how daring Parker gets with some of the transitions within songs while keeping an overall catchy sound throughout. So, has Tame Impala risen above the shameless nostalgia title people gave them when they compared them to JET or The Darkness? I vote yes.
Rock out to Currents on Apple Music or Spotify.
