Tame Impala
Innerspeaker
11 Track, LP (2010, Modular)
Related: Tame Impala.
We’re constantly being reminded that if you can remember the ’60s you weren’t there, and this applies most incisively to people born in the 1980s and beyond. Not only do we remember – we can’t forget. Tame Impala’s debut is reverent sonically and also, in many ways, philosophically. Following a strong paisley psych-rock lineage, Innerspeaker champions the virtues of tuning out and prostrating before a giddyingly colourful and over-exposed simulacrum of the past. It’s not a foreign move in a climate where nigh-forgotten sounds are constantly being saved and re-remembered, reinvigorated and given a(nother) final coating, presented in a new context. Innerspeaker, however, draws from a canon heavily saturated and omnipresent. Its many new coatings are proving ever less durable.
So why are Tame Impala so appealing right now, and will they endure? Innerspeaker isn’t a refutation of any prevalent mood. In fact, temperamentally it fits contemporary indie rock’s sustained and stubborn lack of purpose like a glove. But that same temperament – that same resignation to slight rejuvenation – isn’t necessarily borne of laziness, or creative stasis. There’s love here, but whether you share in it or not will boil down to whether you’d prefer the original article – with its narrative and contemporaneous mystique – or this newer one, with its lack of both.
Songwriter and vocalist Kevin Parker’s lyrics are illustrative. If we’re not being told there’s a “party in my head and no one is invited” (‘Solitude is Bliss’), we are reminded that “nine tenths of the time” he “looks like I disagree”, but that “I don’t really mind” (‘I Really Don’t Mind’). During ‘It Is Not Meant To Be’, Parker mourns a love that will never work out because she “doesn’t like sand stuck on her feet, or sitting around smoking weed”. But for the most part Innerspeaker is fixated on an abstracted sense of escape, an innate longing for effortless resolution, a staunch determination to pursue a freedom and relaxedness that communicates nothing but futile fantasy.
The music communicates this desire effortlessly, though only occasionally do you really want to share in it. ‘Alter Ego’, with its startlingly forcible gallop and time-lapse atmospherics, sounds birthed on a tropics-bound yacht at 60 knots, the wind and sun beating ecstatically on skin. Here, Tame Impala isn’t just a psych-rock band but instead legitimately psychedelic, with otherwise skimpily applied electronics proffering a sense of epoch-travelling vertigo. It’s genuinely transportive.
Unfortunately, most of the time Tame Impala’s approach to psych is frustratingly reductive: apply some flange to the guitar, pan those speakers a bit, drown the vocals in reverb and suddenly Syd Barrett’s ghost emerges like some black magic. Or, as is the case on ‘The Bold Arrow of Time’, throw a blues lick in among a wall of fractaled guitar texture and you’re halfway to Hendrix’s third stone from the sun.
Tame Impala is a very young band, who perhaps shouldn’t be begrudged their love for this palette. If the group really do intend to release a more electronic-focused record in the future (as recent interviews have indicated), then it will do them marvellous favours, not because electronic music is inherently “new”, but because their approach to guitar music is intrinsically and damningly connected to an oft-pillaged past. So here’s to a future in the spirit of exploration for Tame Impala, and, when it comes to the prevalent tropes displayed on Innerspeaker: please, let us forget. Or at the very least let it flail in the precincts of lesser talent.
by Shaun Prescott
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I believe this is the first negative review of this album I've read. The backlash begins! (Or had it already?)
Hey guys, yo dudes! You guys are like young hippies totally stuck in the past man....... But I'll go ahead and refer to the likes of Hendrix and Barrett in my review.
Well you know.. Modular were kinda panicing when Wolfmother were looking like they might be breaking up..''QUICK! MUST FIND BAND WITH GUITARS!!''.
Yep, Tame Impala reference 60s psych rock.
The Bees.
I think this is an eloquent and well argued perspective.
I completely agree with Shaun. It's time to bury the sixties once and for all.
in favour of 80s synth rock?
anyhow, i always thought their vibe was meant to be more early 70s prog than 60 psych
but ive never actually listened to more than half a song
i think shaun has made some good points, especially about baby boomers denying us our own memories, but i can't help it: i really like this record!
on its own merits, or as a nostalgia exercise of kids making a retro record?
on its own merits. i don't think it's blatantly derivative. i like how it uses ''softer'' tones to make big statements. i like how everything is all woozy and trippy and awash with flange. i like listening to it on headphones. i like how every song is a sort of suite.
Uh oh! Someone doesn't get it.
fair enough. i just found it a bit of a disappointment - glass of wine had some original angles to it, but the album didnt seem to follow it up, and just seemed to go for the 'old-fashioned'...
Unfortunately, most of the time Tame Impala’s approach to psych is frustratingly reductive: apply some flange to the guitar, pan those speakers a bit, drown the vocals in reverb
AND
Tame Impala is a very young band, who perhaps shouldn’t be begrudged their love for this palette
sums up exactly what i thought of these guys at Golden Plains. There's good music looking to get made by these guys, they just have to dig a bit deeper more often.
it's one guy, doing everything, and he is younger than all of you.
4 albums in he will be in his mid 20s.
huh? he's 24 now.
obvz ur all 38 hay
Just cuz we're not all 15, you fuck.
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What an incredibly lame comment.
That was inspired by PelicanGodOfJupiter!
playing live somewhere nice in california
I'm listening to this record for the first time right now and really enjoying it! I kind of haven't read the rest of this thread because it seems like it might be some argumentative bullshit and it's Saturday night and I've had one vodka and lemonade and I'm listening to this record and feeling all chill. Good tunes!
Really really really good album. Can't get over it.
Not sure if this is bullshit or not.
what a strange concept for a blog. dude needs to learn how to capitalise in any case (ha!)
sounds about right from what i've heard.
enjoyed the lack of caps. who needs 'em?
Your cousin, because I am going to bust a cap in his ass.
That sounds about right to me..
Anyone have the word on the Innerspeaker LPs? I pre-ordered for Modular months agon and havent seen or heard squat.
after initially defending this album i worked out that if you listen to anything off innerspeaker then listen to anything of dungen 4 it actually gets really infuriating.
in terms of the blatant rip factor... or?
i guess. i hadn't really had a good listen to 4 before today but the sonics are just so freakin' similar it's just stupid.
They have made no secret of their love for of Dungen.
I can't get past this either. Good tunes but nothing original enough to keep me interested.
I've just discovered that if you listen to 'Lucidity' at 150% speed, it's 150% as good as the original.
@ shaun
''But for the most part Innerspeaker is fixated on an abstracted sense of escape, an innate longing for effortless resolution, a staunch determination to pursue a freedom and relaxedness that communicates nothing but futile fantasy.''
This is a genius articulation of what pulled me into this album. We're all longing for ''effortless resolution'' and an escape from that conflict between the pursuit of freedom and the desire to just be chill about it all along the way. *Innerspeaker * is enjoyable. Straight up. Sure it's a little shallow, it's a little futile, but it's the ultimate background music for wallowing in your own self-pity. If you're looking for inspiration, listen to rap. But if you're looking for commiseration, this album is it.
I have listened to the first half twice now and like it a lot.
Tame Impala is weird for me.. A song starts, it's sounds awesome, but after about a minute there is nothing to keep me interested.. I hope they improve but they need songs not just a vibe. And live, too much phaser!
at the end of the day though i'd rather see these cats over some shit like art vs science
It's been well documented that Dave Fridmann is a genius producer, but he has trully stepped up a notch to make these guys' record sound the way it does. Great production work. He's the master of atmosphere and grandiose, orchestral psych-pop. Just check out his work with Mercury Rev (Deserter's Songs and All Is Dream) and the last Low record. Tama Impala should be thanking their fucking Gods he accepted ''their'' cash!