Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
A decade ago, Kevin Parker might have told you he considered himself a drummer. The once-long-haired psychedelic rock aficionado started his career on the drums, and in 2020, he demonstrated a keen ear for recorded drums across genres in a Pitchfork video cataloging his favorite drum tones, which ranged from Serge Gainsbourg to Portishead to, of course, Led Zeppelin. His project, the now festival-headlining Tame Impala, even released a bonus track on their second album called “Led Zeppelin.” For fans aware of Parker’s influences, the project’s pivot into what would eventually be excruciatingly dubbed “psych-pop” in 2015 with his third album Currents would not come as a great shock. Parker expressed an interest early on in synthesizers and electronic flourishes and manipulating guitar signals to replicate those sounds. Love him or hate him, Parker was a musician indebted to his roots as an Aussie psych-rocker no matter how many pedals he used to get a guitar to sound like an organ. Following the release of Currents, Kevin Parker would go on to collaborate with household-name producer and DJ Mark Ronson, have his song covered on Rihanna’s last (and best) album ANTI, and even produce a lead single for Lady Gaga.
What does Kevin Parker consider himself now? If Tame Impala’s most recent record Deadbeat is any indication, the answer seems to be a DJ, or maybe a drum machine left on a loop for about five to seven minutes, give or take. Tame Impala’s fifth album makes a strong case that the drummer-turned-producer has truly run out of steam and yet insists on keeping the momentum rolling at any cost, and that cost is any well-written song. As the follow-up to Tame Impala’s fourth album, The Slow Rush, the new album demonstrates a further deviation from the songwriting and instrumental sensibilities Parker has favored in the past. Gone are all traces of the original psychedelic rock leanings of Tame Impala’s inception, and instead we are subjected to long stretches of the same canned four-on-the-floor electronic dance beats supposedly inspired by Australia’s outdoor electronic parties (called bush doofs) but that mostly feel like placeholders for something he forgot to fully develop.
Though The Slow Rush was a departure from the heavily reverbed guitars and chaotic phased drums of Tame Impala’s beginnings, it still illustrated a continued commitment to Parker’s drum production and organic, albeit polished and sleek, instrumentation across a range of eclectic influences. In an interview with Australia’s Triple J, Parker said Mariah Carey’s brand of ’90s RnB inspired “Breathe Deeper.” On “It Might Be Time,” you can hear the vintage sheen of Supertramp in the piano settings, which could have been lifted straight from Breakfast in America, an album Parker has counted among his favorite albums of all time. Deadbeat’s first single, innocuously titled “End of Summer,” feels exceptionally empty. For just over seven minutes, we endure a repetitive beat that never quite kicks into second gear as Parker waxes poetic about the vague tension between himself and a love interest that can’t quite return his affection.
Have I mentioned yet that Kevin Parker is a husband and father with two kids? Kevin Parker’s second child, his son Rose, was born in May of this year! You would be forgiven for thinking that Parker is still living the reality of an isolated audiophile who is too caught up in the music to learn how to love, because that’s still what he’s singing about on Deadbeat. Across the album, Parker’s lyricism indicates a man struggling to find ways to express himself to the object(s) of his affection. On “No Reply,” Parker begins sheepishly: “I apologise for the no reply / Wish I could describe what goes on inside.” Later on it would seem that “what goes on inside” is “I just want to seem like a normal guy / You know how it’s like, try to see my side / You’re a cinephile, I watch Family Guy.” Parker hasn’t exactly been lauded for the profundity of his lyricism (sorry, Trevor), but it’s a little embarrassing that this is becoming perhaps the album’s most memorable line only due to the sheer absurdity of its manufactured relatability. If Parker no longer embodies the stilted, loner mentality in his everyday life that he projects in his lyrics–Parker has said himself that the album’s title is a tongue-in-cheek rejection of his internalized self-doubt as a parent, and his wife Sophie Lawrence echoes this sentiment, describing him as a present father and husband–then the alternative explanation that it is a continued effort to relate to his now mainstream fanbase is even more troubling. If, like me, you’ve been wondering how Tame Impala’s fanbase has inexplicably become a little fratty, this might help explain it. Where past songs like Currents’ “Cause I’m a Man” and even Lonerism’s “Elephant” hinged on dirtbag main characters, Deadbeat threatens that these weren’t entirely fictional personalities.
But I digress. Tame Impala’s appeal in the past has been the psychedelic sound that Parker modernized, inspired by everything from Blue Cheer to Black Sabbath. Beyond that, there was a sense that crafting those songs was a labor of meticulous tinkering and reclusive crafting. On the back cover of the physical release for Lonerism, a photo of Parker lying on his studio floor, guitar resting in ready position, surrounded by wires, synthesizers, mixers, and other miscellaneous equipment, served as the representation for Tame Impala as a whole. “Did you know it’s just one guy?” became a dead horse beaten senselessly by fans and detractors alike. Deadbeat’s sound has taken this meme to heart and stripped away everything that made the project sound like even the illusion of a group effort. Songs like “No Reply” and “Oblivion” sound not even like demos, but rather recorded songwriting sessions where the ideas are having trouble forming. Parker continues to throw vocal melodies at the wall to see which one of them sticks. The beats, however, just meander into oblivion, so at least one of these tracks is appropriately named. The joke that Tame Impala is “just one guy” has progressively become easier to hear in reality, but on Deadbeat, that one guy is starting to sound really lost.
Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
Deadbeat is out now.
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Connor Gilroy | @GilroyMusic
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