THE SLOW RUSH: Tame Impala's 4th studio album and follow up to 2015's CURRENTS. But is it good?
The first review of an actual new album. Mental. But this is an album I've been longing for since I first heard CURRENTS and LONERISM in 2016, with LONERISM populating my top 10 (and sometimes even 5) albums of all time, and currents being a really solid pop record with plenty of absolute tunes on it. So where does that leave THE SLOW RUSH?
Well, regrettably, this new record Isn't exactly the follow up I had hoped for. Even though Kevin Parker (the mastermind behind TI) clearly signalled a diversion into the mainstream on CURRENTS, THE SLOW RUSH cements TI as pop. Let's take a look at the tracks.
So the album opens with "One more year"- the record floats in with these luscious synth tones, and then gets joined by Kevin and these pitch shifted, 2814 esque backing vocals. The track feels like Kev talking to himself- albeit pitched down- about his musical success: "I never wanted any other way to spend our lives// I know we promised we'd be doing this 'til we die//And now I fear we might". The lyrics in this track are really well written.
Then we launch straight into "instant destiny" and the track gives us no time to get comfy before we're hit with the kind of obnoxious hook, which might've been alright if the track had, like, 30 seconds of build up at the start. It's structured like a typical pop song and has about the same impact.
Next there's "borderline". I like it wayyy better in the album than the single, both because of the flow in the record and the slight re-mix. The chorus's vocal melody is cool too.
Track 4 gives us "posthumous forgiveness", a two part track that starts pretty poorly. The opening is pretty poor, I really do not like the first lines "Ever since I was a small boy//No one else compared to you, no way". They might read fine but do not translate well into the song. But it quickly gets better, K's lyrics "And while you still had time, you had a chance//But you decided to take all your sorrys to the grave". The synth breakdown in the middle gives way to Kevin, as the song's name suggests, forgiving his father. The hook in the second bit is pretty moving- "Wanna tell you 'bout the time//Wanna tell you 'bout my life//Wanna play you all my songs//Hear your voice sing along". It's pretty melancholy and Is definitely a high point in the record.
The next few tracks are a return to mediocrity. I took notes whilst listening to the record, and the next three track I've just wrote "nice instrumental, forgettable lyrics" or some rearrangement thereof. I feel like If i have to write physical notes when listening to your record, you've failed to make anything memorable. Not that some of the tracks aren't, but the fact that I couldn't hum a single bit of some of these tracks reveals alot.
Track 8 is "lost in yesterday"- this album's big lead single- and it's clear Kevin was trying to re-capture the magic of "the less I know the better", with the tracks prominent bassline, this time with a hooky chorus, and lyrics about the past, and nostalgia. It doesn't really land, for me anyway.
Next is "is it true", again, forgettable, and then "It might be time". This track is clearly intended to be a "banger", with it's rave-esque synthesizers, Tame Impala's previously trademark heavy, smashing drumlines. The lyrics illustrate Kevin's fear of growing old and becoming "not cool"- a not unwarranted fear, as he's 34- but the lyrics are executed kind of annoyingly and feel like they could've just been done better. It certainly bangs pretty hard tho, if not for the random stops in the middle of the song.
Glimmer is the penultimate track, and my notes just say "11) Glimmer- Eh?" and yeh, listening back to it it certainly is "Eh", it reminds me of Resonance by Home a whole lot too.
Last track is "One more hour"- cool through line from opener "One more year", another commentary perhaps on how fast Kevin's life is moving. The track is pretty melancholic. It switched between these sparse synths and crashing drum parts. It's got a real air of finality to it, and reminds me "megalomania" from the tail end of Muse's 2001 release "origin of symetry. The instrumental feels very LONERISM-era TI, kind of out of place here. The track then details a one sided conversation with presumably his wife, before it fades out and we never get to hear the resolution. It's a good ending, and rather apt considering that I have less than an hour to write this review currently.
But overall, the album certainly isn't the follow up I'd hoped for. Kevin feels like he's really playing it safe, the tracks are poppier and less experimental than ever. Even on CURRENTS it feels like Kevin has some ambition, with each track having it's own identity, but this entirely safe. Despite it being five years since the last album, Kevin has said he hasn't spent the last 5 years recording- much less in fact- I read somewhere that he had a mad rush to finish the record in the last three weeks, and it kinda shows, songs have bits just hanging off the end, like the end of "breathe deeper" and "Tomorrow's Dust" and then just "Glimmer" as a track. The album, whilst delivering a few good tracks, has largely been a let down for me. The instrumentals are really well crafted but the words on the record expose an underbelly of mediocrity.
If you want to cringe for a while just head to the comments section for any of the new tracks. Also why was patience not put on the record? that was by far one of the best singles from the promo season.
Comments