Album Review: The Slow Rush, by Tame Impala

By Ruby Easterbrook

★★★★☆

Kevin Parker, the Perth-bred musical mastermind behind Tame Impala has spent the past five years keeping us on our toes in anticipation of a Currents successor. The answer to our prayers has been provided in his latest release: The Slow Rush.

From his humble beginnings playing pub gigs around Fremantle, to playing Coachella and living fulltime in Los Angeles, Parker has come a long way since his elementary works Innerspeaker (2010) and Lonerism (2012). These two albums paved the way for the band’s tremendous success, both locally and overseas. Innerspeaker and Lonersism are two albums similar in sound, consisting of complex and trippy layers of oozy psychedelic goodness that could’ve been plucked straight from the 1970s. Currents, their following album in 2015, gave us a full throttle Tame Impala rebrand. More funk, more chunk, more synths; something which one hadn’t though at all possible.

Tame Impala provided us with five singles in the lead up to The Slow Rush’s Valentine’s Day release date – perhaps the band wanted to gift us one song per year we were kept waiting? Thanks Kevin.

‘Patience’, the first single of the five, never made it onto the album. A listening party Parker hosted in L.A. drove him to remaster every single he had produced for The Slow Rush at the time and hence ‘Patience’ was pushed aside. The song is a punchy, funk-riffed, bongo smacking track that poses the question: “So what you doin’ with your life?” and retorts “I’m just growin’ up in stages, livin’ life in phases.” Same.

The Slow Rush feels like a journey through the ages, Parker has never been more genre-fluid. The album is a rumination on the concept of time, namely its inability to be captured. Parker told Triple J the album refers to “being obsessed with the past, being overwhelmed with nostalgia, and being anxious for the future, and being confident about the future, and living in the moment”.

This album feels like Parker’s heart is on his sleeve, his lyrics have never been so profound, touching on topics such as his father’s passing in ‘Posthumous Forgiveness’ and his fear of being past his prime in ‘It Might Be Time’.

The album’s opening track ‘One More Year’ begins with a whammy sounding synth track which echoes and entices throughout the entire song. Parker reflects on his past, present, and future in a romantic and nostalgic tone. “Do you remember we were standing here a year ago? Our minds were racing and time went slow/but now I worry our horizon’s been nothing new/We’re on a roller-coaster stuck on its loop-de-loop,” he sings, while bass vibrates heavily behind. The tone changes midway through the song when parker questions: “Why don’t we just say one more year?”

 ‘Posthumous Forgiveness’ muses on Parker’s father’s passing, the things he wishes he could tell his father, and the things he would have loved to experience with him, from listening and singing along to Tame Impala’s songs to telling him about the time he spoke to Rolling Stone’s Mick Jagger on the phone. The wailing synths and thumping drums in the background speak great measures against the singer’s emotive and vulnerable lyrics.

Fluttery Spanish guitar and shakers lay the foundation to ‘Tomorrow’s Dust’, a track that attempts to convey the message: let go of the past and live for today. Repeating the album’s main themes of nostalgia and time, the chorus: “And in the air of today is tomorrow’s dust” sends a blatant reminder to not take life for granted. The song ends with a phone recording of Parker’s wife that feels like it was captured in a dive bar bathroom and the listeners are eavesdroppers just trying to wash their hands.

‘Lost In Yesterday’ is a funky, dance track that feels like a nod to Currents with its space-like synth sounds and chunky, rounded drums. The lyrics refer to things like Groundhog Day and Snakes and Ladders in order to illustrate the push and pull of wanting to relish in the past and live one’s best life in the present. “If it calls you, embrace it/If it haunts you, face it,” Parker sings in his signature drawn out falsetto voice.

‘Is It True’ is a synergetic club track filled with funky basslines, laser synths, and an immaculate electronic and jazzy clarinet breakdown. ‘It Might Be Time’ is another hard hitter for the album with its incredible chorus drop and humorous lyrics. “It might be time to face it, you ain’t as fun/cool/young as you used to be” Parker sings, as if his popularity is in any way diminishing; we know you’re lying, Kevin. Hefty drums and siren sounds metaphorically warn Parker of his dire need to “embrace” his eccentric and ever-increasingly successful life.

Late 90s club vibes are channelled in the track ‘Glimmer’, a Madonna-esque snippet track filled with dynamic beats and synths that carry out like a glittering star while Parker repeatedly croons “I just want a glimmer of hope”.

The album rounds itself out with the track ‘One More Hour’. Notably from the track ‘One More Year’ to ‘One More Hour’, Parker illustrates a reflection in the last hour of his year. “I did it for fun/I did it for love” are his reasons for anything in his life. The bridge brings the album to a peak with its psychedelic whooshing and dread-filled thumping, a nod to Tame Impala’s albums past, present, and (hopefully) future.

The Slow Rush manages to feel nostalgic while also feeling brand new. It efficaciously captures the struggles many people face in our lives: when the days go by too quickly and we lose track of our true selves – our dreams, our goals, our loved ones, and our happiness. We have to learn to let go of nostalgia when it pains us and get better at living and being productive in the present moment.

Critics who say this album fails to surpass Currents in its success have clearly not spent enough time with The Slow Rush. As predicted in its title, its success will be a slow rush, a process best consumed over a period of hours or potentially years.

You can catch Tame Impala in Adelaide during their national tour with Khruangbin in April. They play the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on the 24^th, tickets are still available for purchase via Ticketek.