Tame Impala Essentials
Playlist - 20 Songs
Since forging Tame Impala from his Perth home in 2007, Kevin Parker has become an in-demand architect of everything from crunchy psych to snappy pop. After communing with effects pedals and shaggy ’60s influences on his early releases—observe the mind-bending contours of 2010’s “Solitude Is Bliss” and “Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind?”—he leveled up to synths on 2012’s Lonerism, yielding the romantic lament “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and the classic-rock strut of “Elephant” among the Beatles-y fantasia “Apocalypse Dreams.” That still didn’t fully foreshadow 2015’s Currents, a funk-driven dance odyssey that felt downright transcendent in the soul-searching “The Less I Know the Better” and the mantra-like “Let It Happen.” Big-ticket collabs followed, but Parker has continued to follow his own muse on Tame records, slipping into Quincy Jones territory on 2019’s “Borderline” and plunging into the past both sonically and emotionally on 2020’s “Lost in Yesterday.” Yet, no matter how elaborate he gets as a self-producing multi-instrumentalist, Parker brings humble humanity to his cosmic daydreams via questioning themes and that soft vocal approach.
Featured Artists
Tame Impala Essentials features Tame Impala, Thundercat, Justice and more