TAME IMPALA – Lonerism
1. Be Above It
2. Endors Toi
3. Apocalypse Dreams
4. Mind Mischief
5. Music to Walk Home By
6. Why Won’t They Talk to Me?
7 Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
8. Keep on Lying
9. Elephant
10. She Just Won’t Believe Me
11. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control
12. Sun’s Coming Up
It is no secret, that the expectation on the new album of Kevin Parker, the head and mostly the full body of the australian band TAME IMPALA were really high. So we take a first listen on the album Lonerism which is released on Modular on 8 October, and try to figure out what happened in between those highly recommended album.
Like their previous album Innerspeaker, most of the recording was undertaken by Kevin Parker. He is also responsible for all the vocals and instruments on every track. The writing and recording of Lonerism almost started immediately after releasing the top album, Innerspeaker, and there was no pressure to finish it really fast. Parker took his time to consider the whole album and get influences from everywhere so Lonerism is recorded in many different places around the world whilst touring with TAME IMPALA. Because he is a solo music writer he doesn’t need a “band meeting” to check out the new ideas. He just did it by himself, wherever he was and so he revealed
“I’ve got a recording thing with me at the moment, I can do vocal takes and guitar takes wherever I am, so it’s getting recorded all over the world. There’s a guitar take in Vienna, or a vocal take in the aeroplane from Singapore to London. I’ve got my studio at home, so a lot is being done in Perth.”
So it’s no wonder that that Parker picked again Dave Fridmann (producer of WEEZER, MGMT, NEON INDIAN, MOGWAI, SPARKLEHORSE and more) as his record producer. As a great fan of THE FLAMING LIPS, whom are also produced by Dave Fridmann, Parker refers all the time to their sound, and he also tried to explain, why Lonerism is so special in this way:
“For me, it’s a combination of nice sugary pop crossed with really fucked-up, explosive, cosmic music. It’s like BRITNEY SPEARS singing with THE FLAMING LIPS”
But what did you get for your money when you buy and listen to Lonerism? You get everytime something new. By hearing it through and through you will encounter new sounds and rhythm in almost every song. You get riveted by Parkers silvery voice and the very well concerted arrangement of the instrumental parts. Some time you get so deep into the song that it’s fearing hypnotizing to stay just where you are. The drums will trigger you off and sure the sound of the drums isn’t that dry. TAME IMPALA didn’t save up the effects just for the guitar so you can hear the Flanger effect in Feels Like We Only Go Backwards in the drums. I really get lost into this song, because everything in this song feels so natural. The cheerful bass totally fits in this song about the hope after you leaving something or someone.
Further you can hear Parkers affinity for ambient sounds in the song Be Above It. In this song there are sounds of a person walking in front of the hotel Parker was staying at. He did this because of the weird shape of the street and so he just added some a reverb and gave the track something special. These little stories are proceeding through the whole album. Another story? Gladly! Keep on Lying starts like you expect a dreampop song, but after you drifting apart you will hear some noises of people talking. You are right now in a completely different place. Parker is obsessed with collecting noises and he is collecting every time. In this case it is just a dinner party where people chatting and this fact brings us to another thing you have to mention. Lonerism. The album is written in a time when Parker touring around with the band and did all the gigs and met so many peoples. So you need your time by yourself and then you have to go into your room and maybe never come back…
But you will also hear the differences in the album. Prime Model for this thesis is the first single Elephant which was released on 26 July, 2012. This songs differs from the rest, because on the one hand one of the oldest songs by TAME IMPALA, but they never recorded it and on the other hand this song isn’t just older than the rest, it will also show up with a bluesy riffing you will never hear again on the Album, because the rest of Lonerism is more psychedelic with melancholy melodies and sounds. Apocalypse Dreams describes this best. All in all Lonerism is more hearable for the mass, because of the pop influences Parker wanted to contribute. It’s not like Innerspeaker with all the different creation of sounds. It’s even more! It’s like you swimming in an ocean of melody trying to survive the Apocalypse Dream when the Sun’s Coming Up.
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TAME IMPALA
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psychedelic / rock
from Perth, Australia
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