Australian singer and instrumentalist Kevin Parker, known as Tame Impala, introduced me to the psychedelic pop and indie pop genre with his synth and electronic tracks. I came into his fifth studio album, “Deadbeat,” released Oct. 17 with high expectations, which were only partially met.
The first track was “My Old Ways,” a song about repeatedly trying to break free from old habits the narrator is remorseful of, but consistently failing. The song starts with Parker’s voice being drowned-out by steady piano notes, then transitions to an electronic beat incorporated with the piano, which strangely worked for a quirky, catchy beat. Though it was just for a few lines of the song, I had difficulty making out the song’s lyrics and would have liked to have heard his voice better, especially since it was the song kicking off the album. The chorus consisting of only “Back into my old ways again” is extremely repetitive but perfectly encapsulates how the narrator cycles from trying to end his bad habits to failing and feeling regretful of it.
“No Reply” focuses more on its backing track and vocals and follows themes of insecurities in the social world. Since there weren’t a lot of lyrics in the song, I was hoping for a change in the backing track’s tempo throughout the verses, which unfortunately didn’t happen. The rapid-fire electronic beat got boring after a bit and the long outro at the end didn’t seem to add much to the song.
“Dracula” has a very synth, Halloween vibe to it, which fits the name perfectly. The song reminds me of something they would play in the background of a 2000s Halloween party movie in the best way possible. Using the character Count Dracula to describe Parker’s disdain of feeling exposed and the desire to stay in the shadows, the vocals and cadence inspired by Australian rave music makes for a funky dance song. I especially liked the vocal layering Parker incorporated into the song, though I was disappointed in the lack of build up from the song’s bridge and felt there was wasted potential with what could’ve been more of a beat drop going into the refrain.
One of my biggest issues with the album was the backing track being too loud compared to Parker’s voice, as mentioned in “My Old Ways.” Parker has a relatively high pitched voice that is edited by him to be reverbed, meaning it can be easily overshadowed by the upbeat sounds he is known for using. Though he hasn’t had this problem as often in his past albums, it was more prevalent in songs on this album such as “Oblivion” and part of “See You On Monday (You’re Lost)”.
The song that stood out to me more was “Obsolete,” as its mellow instrumental contrasted greatly from the rest of the album. Shifting from his other songs about a love story gone right, “Obsolete” is about the narrator being hurt from his significant other’s words and lies, wondering if they still want his love. I enjoyed Parker’s new approach for the beat of the song and his rhyming lyrics of phrases including the idiom “talk is cheap, but words cut deep.”
“Deadbeat” had some great songs I will definitely be including into my playlists overall, even if there could’ve been better harmony between the vocals and backing track. I liked the new approaches Parker took in songs like “Oblivion,” and I would give the album a 3.5/5 stars.
