Album Review: Tame Impala, Deadbeat

Kevin Parker’s music has always been animated by ghosts of the past. Early Tame Impala cooked nouvelle cuisine from classic ingredients, like McCartney’s rubbery bass tone and John Bonham’s thunderous fills.

Then there’s the death of his father haunting The Slow Rush, and the decaying Perth power station that sparked the electromagnetism of Currents.

On Deadbeat he’s at it again, this time channeling house and techno. It’s an ode to the lost art of the rave, specifically Australia’s bush doof culture: a psychedelic home for drifters and self-proclaimed outsiders like Parker.

Just look at the accompanying music videos. The bittersweet, nostalgia-drenched ‘End of Summer’ depicts him as an itinerant soul - walking, cycling, and helicoptering through vast spaces, searching for something that’s not there. In the movie for ‘Dracula,’ we see a mix of old, young, and even pregnant ravers. It hints at the judgement free and communal spirit the underground culture evokes. ‘Loser’ does the opposite, showing a man - a former raver perhaps - drinking on a curb outside a bodega in the L.A. suburbs. He’s yearning for conversation but finding none on the outer rim of a monstrous city.

These visuals reinforce the sense of sadness and longing which pulses through the music itself. Though lyrics touching on isolation, harsh self-appraisal and retrospection are in familiar Tame Impala territory, Deadbeat refracts these feelings through new prisms.

It’s nearly guitar-free, save for the looping riff on ‘Loser’ and the Spanish Phrygian lick on ‘Obsolete’. Instead Parker surrenders to electronic drumbeats, dense synth layers, and heavy, hypnotic bass.

Opener ‘My Old Ways’ is a meditation on bad habits over a piano line and house beat, and ‘Afterthought’ glows with a trance-like ’80s electro shimmer. On ‘Ethereal Connection’, the bass is so deep and immense it feels like a sonic blanket, blocking out all external distractions.

Deadbeat sees Parker shave his music down to its most primitive appeals. It’s a confident change of direction, proving that even when taking away, he finds ways to expand.

Deadbeat is out now. Listen here.