Tame Impala enters the new decade presenting a Valentine’s day gift to its long time fans with the new release of “The Slow Rush”, and they did not leave any room for disappointment.
Tame Impala is a psychedelic music project started by Kevin Parker, an Australian multi-instrumentalist who writes and records most of Tame Impala’s music. The band’s albums began to attract listeners in 2010 with the release of the debut “Innerspeaker’’ which was received well by the Australian audience and picked up interest in the psychedelic rock genre.
Following both early 2019 singles, “Borderline” and “Patience,” Tame Impala released the album “The Slow Rush” on Valentine’s day. The album was delayed to 2020 after Parker stated, “Part of the thing about me starting an album is that I have to feel kind of worthless again to want to make music.” It was later on in 2019 when the band revealed on their website that they’d be releasing the album in 2020.
“The Slow Rush” gives off retro and vaporwave vibes pretty consistently throughout the whole album. Most of the songs present a nostalgic aftertaste that leaves listeners with a chill and subtle dopamine buzz.
The overall outlook and message on the album are about facing temporary eternity. The title of the album, “The Slow Rush,” is a juxtaposition for life and how timeless it can seem within the moment despite how time never stops. Other songs within the album highlight Parker’s awareness of his position in the timeline of his life and how he tries to hang onto the moments of life such as “One More Year”, “Lost in Yesterday”, and “Tomorrow’s Dust.” He does a fantastic job at conveying this idea in his music; it feels as though time stops moving when listening to the album. Each song transitions smoothly into the next with the exception of a few outliers such as “Glimmer,” which gives off more of an upbeat 90’s disco beat to it rather than the other hazily calm songs.
“Borderline”, one of the previous songs in released as a single in 2019, was updated and released again when the album came out. While the difference between the two songs isn’t too far off, the newer version has a more apparent beat that isn’t masked in the background and gives the songs more of an uppity while still remaining chill and relaxed at the same time.
Some of the songs, however, felt a little too similar to each other to the point where I couldn’t recognize one from the other or if I had already listened to it. While I enjoy the instrumentals of the album, it would have been nice to have lyrics that were outstanding in my head rather than easily mistakable and underlooked ones. This seems to be a recurring characteristic of the band but doesn’t take too much away from the quality. The instrumentals definitely make up for the lack of memorable lyrics and fuel the imagination just as much as words would.
Overall, the album was brilliantly executed and I’m very delighted to see that they didn’t fall too far from their original hazy relaxed vibes produced in the previous album. I rate “The Slow Rush” 5 stars out of 5 for meeting the expectations I had wished to see from the band, kept with their consistent vibe, and rekindled my interests in it once again.