First Listen: Tame Impala, 'Lonerism'
Hear 'Lonerism' In Its Entirety
Tame Impala's new album, Lonerism, comes out Oct. 9. Maciek Pozoga/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Tame Impala's new album, Lonerism, comes out Oct. 9.
Maciek Pozoga/Courtesy of the artistAudio for this feature is no longer available.
On the surface, Tame Impala is another big, brash, psychedelic rock band, with lots of fussy studio tricks and grandiose solos — even on disc, a light show is implied. Kevin Parker's vocals can seem almost secondary to guitars that buzz and fuzz compellingly, but his emotional distance serves a thematic purpose: For Tame Impala, Parker writes songs about solitude, and about maintaining distance from others that needn't be literal.
Both of the Australian band's album titles tell the same story: Innerspeaker. Lonerism. The latter's songs, even when only fragments of a given lyric can be discerned, convey a sense of walls being built; of an arm's length being extended. Not a collection of psychedelic freakouts so much as a collection of controlled psychedelic slow-burns — though the fat, swirling guitars in "Endors Toi" would make Swervedriver proud — Lonerism (out Oct. 9) makes alienation and introversion sound both alluring and, ironically, inviting.