Currents.
| Tame Impala
Currents.
Currents is the third studio album by Australian musical project Tame Impala. It was released on 17 July 2015 by Modular Recordingsand Universal Music Australia. In the United States it was released by Interscope Records and Fiction Records, while Caroline International released it in other international regions. Like the group's previous two albums, Currents was written, recorded, performed, and produced by primary member Kevin Parker. For the first time, Parker mixed the music and recorded all instruments by himself; the album featured no other collaborators. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Irish Times
The mellow funk and the sharp guitars on The Less I Know the Better is an unexpected delight, and Past Life’s spoken word verses about the ghosts of our life are complemented by a blissed-out chorus. Cause I’m a Man is full of apology, yet New Person, Same Old Mistakes is possessed of a hope to “be better”. It’s a deeply personal statement, and a perfect closing song on one of the records of the year. tameimpala.com
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Smash Cut Reviews
In any case, Kevin Parker and Tame Impala have done it again with a sound just different enough to suck you in and enough of the same to keep fans of the older material. To say that this album got me hyped enough to look for more music to review would be the absolute truth.
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GRON
As a whole, Currents is summer-drenched. Upbeat and short-but-sweet, Disciples is the kind of song that you could have on repeat for hours, and absolutely reeks of days in the sun. ‘Cause I’m a Man is perhaps the icing on the Currents cake, despite being heralded by some as sexist. A hazy melody and smoldering vocals make for a floaty, chilled out summer soundtrack.
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Totally Dublin
Fans of earlier Tame Impala albums will enjoy the spaced-out psychedelic vibe that sticks around on this album, although it’s brought into less familiar territory with a focus on intricately textured, bassy soundscapes rather than fuzzy guitar hooks. This new direction is definitely a good one; despite the lack of focus in places, there are always enough surprises to keep drawing you back in. A sonic playground shrouded in dark clouds.
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EW
On their third outing, the Aussie poster boys for psych-rock revivalism fortify their lava-lamp jams with lashings of sonic shimmer and deep-space synths. The crimson-and-clover sprawl of the band’s first two albums is still intact, but there’s a new kind of richness to front man Kevin Parker’s lonely-astronaut experiments.
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The Music Ninja
By honing the power and strangeness of Lonerism, Parker’s latest album is certainly set to change the music landscape once again. Often bands, coming off of commercial success, wilt under the pressure of sustaining their moment in the spotlight, signaling an end to their reign. In Currents, we have the rare case in which speculation and patience have been met with appraisal as Tame Impala exceed all expectations.
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Tenement TV
Simply put, this album is a staggering achievement and is likely going to go down as a pivotal turning point in Parker’s career. Shedding his previous skin in favor of this adventurous but ultimately rewarding endeavor, the Australian native and his band have accosted their fans and requested that they undertake this journey with them. If you’re wise, you’ll embark with very little trepidation.
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Titan Times
In the end, the band does seem like it is going through some changes in sound and their overall personalities, but it feels like they took a step back in this album compared to their last album Lonerism. At times Currents feels more like a pop record rather than a Tame Impala record. In Lonerism they had a really interesting sound going, but in Currents some songs sound a bit bland and boring.
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Spectrum Culture
Hearing a band push itself beyond a sort of sonic stasis will nearly always be far more interesting than hearing retreads of past glories. Tame Impala seems well aware of this and more than willing to challenge its audience. And for that they should be applauded.
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Mind Equals Blown
Tame Impala’s music has always made me feel like I’m looking out on a sunny day without a hat or sunglasses. The smacking of psychedelia and phasing evokes what it’s like to have your eyes squinted, needing your hand to help you make out the shapes in front of you. It’s complex without being dark. Frontman Parker continues to elicit the same feeling without recycling the exact methods used in the last album. It’s similar enough that existing fans know what to expect, but diverse enough that there is plenty to discover and enjoy.
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The Chicago Tribune
Tame Impala reinvents itself as pop masters on the marvelous 'Currents'.
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The Current
Kevin Parker shows the agility of the band's namesake "impala" all over Currents — lucky for us, this Tame Impala isn't also endangered.
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WRMC
Of Tame Impala’s three full-length albums so far, each has its own unique and absolutely incredible vibe; it has been exhilarating to watch the band evolve over the years. From the rock and roll-driven sound of Innerspeaker (and their self-titled EP), to the space pop of Lonerism, and now the dreamy disco of Currents, Tame Impala always retains a very distinct sound. Being a young musician, still climbing to the peak of his career, it will be incredibly exciting to watch Kevin and the band continue to grow. Tame Impala’s sound is always unique, and the ability to change styles while remaining so powerful and compelling is what makes them exceptional.
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Modern Vinyl
Tame Impala's "Currents" is a departure for Kevin Parker in certain respects, but he keeps the psychedelic elements heavy enough that this new blend of multiple genres sounds uniquely his. He's crafted a phenomenal break-up album with his most straightforward lyrics yet, and his approach to more accessible and dancey synth texturing provides an interesting dichotomy, but Parker's precision allows us to get from point A to B in a heartbeat. It's his most realized effort yet, and this might just be the beginning of multiple transformations in a career that only looks to be living in "The Moment." If only its vinyl package was a little more to be desired. The 2xLP limited edition colored vinyl is certainly cool to look at and keeps in line with the artwork's color scheme, but that's all you're left with. The music speaks for itself, which is reason alone to pick up the record, as it sounds really, really good on wax.
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Surviving the Golden Age
In total, Currents has some great songs, but just isn’t a great album. While some of these songs will certainly be ones I come back to again and again, there are far too many skippable tracks. They’re either actively bad songs (“Past Life”, “Cause I’m A Man”) or just don’t seem to provide anything thematically crucial when you listen to the album front to back. It’s a disappointment, especially when you consider the cohesion of his last two records. But the relief is that Kevin Parker hasn’t lost “it.” He still shows flashes of genius. He can still write beautiful pop songs. His tendency to wander and try new things is what makes him great—but unfortunately it’s also what keeps this particular album from reach greatness.
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Music Existence
The super synth and strong percussion fuse with Parkers echoing vocals to make the album a minimalist symphony of sounds. It’s so hard to pick out just a few songs that really stand out. The first single “Let It Happen” is an incredible journey that I have already dedicated an entire post to here. The fourth single “Eventually” is another highlight for sure. and “Yes I’m Changing” is life changing… but so is “The Less I Know The Better.” The entire album is just a masterpiece.
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WVUA
Overall, this album mixes the vibe and feel of Tame Impala with a new, pop-based sound that has worked out unbelievably well. Currents is ambitious, and sometimes ambitious releases can fall flat, but it does not. They didn’t just try a new sound, they’ve killed it. If you wanted more of the old, I can’t blame you, but this album deserves a proper try, whether you are a Tame Impala fan or not.
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Cherwell
From Talking Heads to Arcade Fire, Tame Impala is hardly the first rock band to turn to, in Parker’s own words, ‘dorky, white disco funk’, and in 2015 genre labels like ‘rock band’ feel increasingly unstable anyway. Parker’s guitar was always so heavily doused in reverb and skilfully refracted through studio manipulation, that the shift to synth hardly comes as a shock, particularly when it is delivered with the pure melodic ease that Tame Impala fans have come to expect. Currents may not be a shocking or an extraordinary album, but it’s a highly enjoyable one, and that’s more than enough.
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Music & Riots
The driving bass lines and indie guitars have been replaced with dreamy synthesisers and R’N’B drum beats. Proving that Tame Impala’s sound can encompass anything. From rock to dance, to distorted sounds that don’t even sound like music. This is the new sound of psychedelic music.
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Brum Notes
Closing track New Person, Same Old Mistakes first appears to be more of an omen than the heavy-funk, synth-pop hooks contained within, but Parker’s last assurance that Currents is a significant progression from Innerspeaker and Lonerism, should ward off thoughts that this record isn’t what Tame should be. To some, it may be too far off what they’re used to, but in reality it is the next logical step. It’s a reflection of where Tame Impala are currently at, and that’s turned out to be somewhere great.
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Eric Mack Attacks
Tame Impala's third album Currents is a triumph, plain and simple. Lonerism may have established Tame Impala's Kevin Parker is a multi-talented artist and producer, but Currents cements his status as one of pop music's top talents regardless of genre.
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The State Press
Many will enjoy this album because of how diverse the track list is and how replayable most of the songs are. One can only wonder what Parker will create next.
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No Ripcord
Currents is the epitome of Parker’s ability to render a serenely beautiful image over a much darker proposition, and a celebration of his incredible prowess as a drummer and a bassist. His synth work on this record is nothing short of remarkable, and his ability as a producer is further enhanced to a level at which he has no contemporaries. Parker is a once-in-a-generation talent, and this album is conclusive evidence of it.
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Now Toronto
It’s clearly a breakup album, but its bitterness is couched in optimism about the potential for self-reinvention. Put another way, it’s the soundtrack to moving away from the old and toward the new.
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Scoop
Personally, the stakes were high for me with Currents. Tame Impala became my favourite band shortly after Innerspeaker and I sincerely hoped I would like this album. I love it.
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Get Alternative
This minor detail highlights a major theme in the transition from Lonerism to Currents: rather than hiding his thoughts beneath layers of instrumentation, Parker is speaking up. And as he emerges from the fog, one thing is especially clear: whether he’s on stage with a guitar or in the studio staring at his laptop, Kevin Parker is a goddamn Rockstar.
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The Rambler
Although Tame Impala isn’t a very well known band by any means, their unique sound quality and lyrical depth are deserving of infinite praise. Even though Currents sounds to be influenced by a little more pop than their previous albums, it still is very well written. The entire theme of this album focuses mainly around the choppy currents of Kevin Parker’s relationship and life. Although the lyrics may seem depressing to read, they are presented in such a way that they still put you in a good mood.
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The Interns
You may get the shift in sound straight away or it might take you a while to come around but once you do you’ll recognize there’s far more to explore here than any other Tame Impala album. Better yet it sounds like they’re only moving forward and that’s exciting when a songwriter with as many ideas as Parker is in the driver’s seat.
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Myriad Muzik
Ambiguous surrealist visuals rightfully pair with the audio on this LP. ‘Currents’ plays less like individual currents and more like one beautiful cohesive body of water.
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Under the Radar Magazine
Notably, this album marks the first full-length that Parker handled essentially as a solo album, even eschewing the now-customary handoff to Dave Fridmann for the mixdown. Parker ends up somewhere closer mix-wise to, say, his recent collaborator Mark Ronson, or other modern progenitors of danceable pop music, than he does to any psych or classic-rock forebears—and a measurable distance from the sonic cloth of 2010’s Inner speaker. Debuts of that magnitude can be a curse: what could Parker—or anyone—really do to match such Inner speaker’s mind-boggling bounty, or even the glut of idiosyncratic perfection on its weird cousin Lonerism (2012)? The answer: it doesn’t matter. Accept this new gift, and maybe even trade in the couch-lock for some dancing.
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HeadStuff
Tame Impala Dazzle And Delight On The Truly Psychedelic ‘Currents’.
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Kid With a Vinyl
Currents is a masterpiece simply because of this exact struggle. Change is something we all go through as human beings, and it’s refreshing to see an artist so in tune with his own sense of forced adaptation that something truly beautiful grows from it. It’s clear that Tame Impala has found the path towards evolution, and from here, it seems like Kevin Parker can only go forwards.
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The Early Registration
It’s as electronic as it is classic rock, with a perfect punch of soul on the side to establish Kevin as an incredible singer. Tame Impala’s past albums may have embraced the sounds found in an airy, echoing daydream, but with Currents, Kevin Parker and his band hit the pavement of reality and define just what it means to be human.
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The Edge
Overall a very cool album, starts off strong but by the second half the vocals begin to drone and the songs become uninspired. The tracks work separately but not as an album.
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PopMatters
Australia's most promising young rock band masterfully blend psychedelia with dance music on their bold and epic third album.
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musicOMH
But for those that are willing to kiss goodbye to the guitars and join Parker on his latest detour, you’re likely to get swept away by the dreaminess of Currents. It’s just a shame that the undeniable majesty of opener Let It Happen sees the album peak at a high it can never hope to reach for the remainder of its existence.
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alenebouranova
Currents now sits next to Innerspeaker and Lonerism at the top of my playlist. It is different from Tame Impala’s first two albums but not at all in a bad way. The disco notes work here because they’re sharp, as should have been expected from Parker. Ain’t nothing wrong with a little funk, especially if Parker is the one bringing it.
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Layers & Sounds
Life and music are entwined because we all evolve. At a point, some stop evolving while others strive for more. Currents is an inspiring example to create and be yourself despite the naysayers and critics. Keep it real and ride the wave. "Arise and walk, come through / A world beyond that door is calling for you / It's calling out for you."
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AV Club
An over-reliance on synths mars an otherwise great album from Tame Impala.
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VultureHound
Often these niche genre bands like Tame Impala generate a sort of cult following, before making that jump onto the next level thanks to a huge release. Take outfits like Foals & Alt J who began in a similar manner, beginning with cult like followings in their niche sort of genres. Both now making the jump to being considered as future major festival headliners. This record could be that very jump for Tame Impala, or at least definitely a step in that same direction.
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Backseat Mafia
Currents does something quite fantastical in that it takes the uncool and makes it cool again. Those cheesy electric piano sounds you heard in Richard Marx songs in the mid-80s? Well they’re not cheesy anymore. Kevin Parker takes the uncool and makes it vital. Currents is a pop record from another dimension. A dimension where Kevin Parker co-wrote “Billie Jean” with Michael Jackson and smoked up with Alan Parsons. It’s one of the best records of the year.
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Soze Media
From the energizing euphoria of Let It Happen, through the late-night reflection of Yes, I’m Changing, to the downright dreamy Love/Paranoia, Currents is one record that you just can’t miss.
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The DePaulia
Do all of these tricks pay off? No, there’s some forgettable moments. Make no mistake: this isn’t an album of growing pains, but Kevin Parker finally demonstrating the extent of his compositional prowess. Tame Impala has changed, and so has Parker. “Currents” doesn’t just outstandingly demonstrate an evolution. It’s what Parker has always been meant to be.
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The West Review
The funky, trippy sound is still there of course, it’s just made on a keyboard instead of a guitar, but it’s very easy to get lost in the moment and embrace the beauty of it all. Just make sure you’re not doing anything when you’re listening to it, you’ll end up in space and forget where you were.
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The Independent
All that silliness about being a reincarnated John Lennon was just for fun. Their voices sound similar, but if Parker is John Lennon reborn, Lennon is taking a vacation in this life, just messing around with music for fun. Parker doesn’t show a lot of focus, dedication, or artistic vision so much as he just kinda does this thing. And hey, Hershey’s does that, and McDonald’s does that, and Coca-Cola does that: devise a product, and crank it out. And it works generally. If this comparison has any merit, however, “Currents” is Tame Impala’s Crystal Pepsi.
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Buffablog
Again, it’s no third masterpiece by Parker. However even if it’s pop music, it’s Kevin Parker’s pop music, and you don’t see too many artists (even indie) that continue to grow as musicians and producers as he has continued to do.
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Slackerlee + Austin Music Review
The highlight songs of Currents are “Let It Happen”, “Yes I’m Changing”, “Eventually”, “The Less I Know the Better”, “Past Life” and, “Cause I’m A Man”, but upon the listening through the album, it is obvious that the total effect is much greater than the sum of it’s parts. Parker continues his journey of self-discovery and evolution as he moves past his third album, and it’s a joy to simply be a spectator of his remarkable trajectory. We can only hope that his work ethic in the studio and fascination with experimental sounds doesn’t wane anytime soon, because the way Tame Impala is going, there is no reason they shouldn’t be the defining sound of the millennial generation
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Daily Bruin
Parker isn’t the kind to delve into his personal life or his position in the musical world for introspection, but he is apparently the kind to try reinventing the wheel – the wheel, in this case, being the cycle of pop that makes the world go round.
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A Velvet Postgrad
Nonetheless, brush aside a few moments here and there, and Currents remains a tremendous achievement in which Parker flourishes as producer, musician, and songwriter. The final result may be less world-beating than its immediate predecessor, but it’s highly impressive on its own terms, and points towards spectacular things in Parker’s future. It’s tantalising to ponder what shapes he’ll form next.
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Audiosprawl
There is so much to absorb on Currents, and it pays for repeated listens. Definitively one of the most lushly produced and mixed albums of recent memory, Currents is a consistently enjoyable and revolutionary reaffirmation of Kevin Parker’s musical and lyrical ingenuity.
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I Heart Comix
It is always refreshing when a good band explores new sounds while retaining their integrity and passion. Definitely a favorite of the year so far.
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UNF Spinnaker
Tame Impala proves that nostalgia is killing indie.
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Antidote
Currents is the most unique Tame Impala project yet. It speaks to many with its accessibility and catchy riffs. Kevin Parker narrates listeners through his personal woes with gorgeous falsetto and a ghostly presence haunting the spectrum of indie music. As he sings on “Yes I’m Changing”, “They say people never change but that’s bullshit”. Good for you for recognizing that, Kev. We won’t be getting a Lonerism part 2 anytime soon and that’s not a bad thing. The album may have its speed bumps but it has enough appeal to be blasted throughout the rest of the summer.
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Dummy Mag
The album's singularity causes 'Currents' to be Parker's most positive and accomplished record yet. While it doesn't represent a particularly seismic shift in direction, it's still an outlier that moves away from the rest of Tame Impala's discography – and even if it's difficult for some people to digest or accept, you can't question Parker's judgement for stepping out a little. The self-guided odyssey is for him to take, and he'll continue to express not who he was, but who he is.
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AllMusic
While Currents would have made a decent Kevin Parker solo album, people coming to the album and expecting to hear the Tame Impala they are used to will most likely end up quite disappointed.
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Cultured Vultures
Currents is arguably Arctic Monkeys’ AM’s disco-obsessed cousin, lecherous rhythms and warm melancholy being central to both. The beauty of Tame Impala is that one knows what direction they’ll head in next. They embody the unpredictability of rock and roll, combining introspection with uplifting rhythms brilliantly, and will continue to enthral for years to come.
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Redbrick
All in all, Currents is a delight to listen to from start to finish. It doesn’t come across as a laboured concept album, or a non-stop music attack, but 13 well-paced, expertly written tracks that are sure to soundtrack the best days of the rest of 2015. Kevin Parker may not be fully happy, but this album will make the rest of us incredibly content
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The Quietus
There are passages ('Nangs', ''Cause I'm A Man') where Currents is a close companion to Gayngs' enchanted 2010 release, Relayted, which took as its cue the mood and tempo of 'I'm Not In Love' by 10cc - a track without which Currents too might not exist in the form it does. You can't count the strands in it. It would be pointless to try, and with each play I spot new ones - resemblances which might be references or might be accidents, but which cohere to make a whole not necessarily greater but appreciably lighter than the sum of its parts. That's the fun of it. But the real joy of it is in settling back, rudderless and with the radar off, and letting Currents carry you wherever it will.
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Skiddle
What we have here is an album built on transition, grief and pain often conveyed through ethereal and immersive melodies harmoniously trying to seep through a new light. It feels like an album that Kevin Parker wanted to get out of the way just as much as he wanted to communicate something new; it's a journey into the subconscious of a heartbroken man, most probably under the influence of acid whilst listening to the Bee Gees.
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Janky Smooth
2 albums of psychedelic rock, Tame Impala style, weren’t enough. In no way does Currents hit the kind of nerve that Kid A did in it’s metamorphosis of sound and if this was Tame Impala’s first album, I wouldn’t even give it a second look- now I’m sad.
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Under the Radar
On the 2012 release, writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker successfully blended the psychedelic sounds of the 60s and 70s with modern production and electronic influences to create a unique and captivating sound...
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Methods Unsound
Ultimately though Currents is a career-best album, that has enough pleasant surprises and moments of originality to keep it from disappearing fully down a giant psychedelic bumhole. It also makes a change for a reclusive single man to do something so appealingly creative rather than just playing Arkham Knight for 52 hours straight and contemplating which of his old school friends he would send a letter-bomb to.
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Slant Magazine
Although Currents is, in many ways, a showcase of difference, Tame Impala also toys with repetition as a unifying theme.
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Best New Bands
I couldn’t say with any certainty that Currents is Tame Impala’s “best” album, and it’s not because I don’t think its brilliant (it is, and I do). One of the reasons I love Kevin Parker is that he never wants to bore his audience. He reinvented his sound and brought us into the more tangible parts of his psyche this time around, no matter how painful it may have seemed for him to do so. Parker is also a perfectionist, and it shows, as with every other Tame Impala LP. I will say that this one lets us see a side that is not often seen, even when we look inside ourselves.
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Hit the Floor
Currents is an album which is totally without comparison. It stands totally on its own, taking up every fibre of your being and every one of your senses for every second of its running time.
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Clash Magazine
It's too early to say if 'Currents' will be the masterpiece that Kevin Parker is remembered for, but not too early to state that this is his best LP yet, a near-perfect album in a body of already remarkably impressive works. On 'Yes I'm Changing' ,he invites us along for his future journey: "Yes I'm changing, yes I'm gone, yes I'm older, yes I'm moving on / And if you don't think it's a crime you can come along with me..." On the basis of 'Currents', you should pack your bags and get ready for the ride.
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Northern Transmissions
Like much of Currents, “Past Life” has absolutely no subtlety, but it’s Parker’s willingness to wear his heart on his sleeve that makes the LP a heartfelt masterpiece rather than just a catchy collection of trippy sounds. The constant cloudy-headed experimentation gets a little exhausting over the course of the album’s 13-track, 52-minute runtime, but the lyrics provide the lucid emotional core that keeps these spacey songs grounded.
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Student Edge
Currents one of the most satisfying narrative journeys of the year, let alone aural ones. He wants to be a better dude. At first, he wrongly thinks he’s made it. The triumphant arc? Parker settling on the realization he’s got a ways to go.
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