Fresh Album Reviews
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Kevin and co. Tame Impala – Currents (Universal) out July 17. Perth psych rock dancefloor party starting band, essentially Kevin Parker’s (middle, scarf face) project and his pinch-hitting live band is pictured
Source: Supplied
Who can Tame Impala? Are High Tension really bullies? Are up for Everything Everything and if so have you been for Years and Years? Need a little Tuka?
Yes, you look peckish for new music.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
CURRENTS
TAME IMPALA
[UNIVERSAL]
****
Tame Impala – Currents
Source: Supplied
Before Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories album was released, the hype machine had performed its duty. Those YouTube clips with Moroder et al, the Zeitgeist-creating first single Get Lucky, the new helmets and the build-up were so potent one review on iTunes trumpeted “5 stars. This is the greatest album of all time”. Reminder, the record wasn’t even out yet. Talk about a cheer campaign.
Similarly, Tame Impala’s third record drops next week and people are already losing their minds. Incidentally, Kevin Parker lost his while off his head to Bee Gees’ Stayin Alive. He had an epiphany…and headed into the studio thinking only of the dancefloor.
Currents’ opening track, Let It Happen, is a walloping 4/4 meditation about decluttering one’s brain. Marquee Moon Pt 2.
“They say people never change but that’s bulls—t, of course they do” is a riposte to fans wanting an album of stomping Elephants. Instead, Currents pulls the mirrors off the Cadillac, puts its feet on the dash and hits cruise control.
Past Life starts with a pitched-down monologue about a former flame then thumps into a filtered R&B finger-clicker without really clicking.
’Cause I’m a Man tackles a similar mood, shrugging at the hopelessness of being a dude.
Annoyingly, Parker’s Lennon-like upper register grates after a whole album; he should follow Shamir’s lead and mess with his tones and timbre.
Great comedians make it look easy and Parker’s Let It Happen set the bar so high — while appearing to barely lift a finger — it proved impossible to top. He had a red hot go though.
New Person, Same Old Mistakes is a brown-chicken-brown-cow groove with Lonerism-level hooks. More of those hot basslines = one extra star. / MIKEY CAHILL
SOUNDS LIKE: 2015: a bass odyssey
IN A WORD: celestial
Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. Ironically, he doesn’t use much guitar on their new album, out with the rock, in with the roll. Picture: Attila Szilvasi.
Source: HeraldSun
BULLY
HIGH TENSION
[DOUBLE CROSS AUSTRALIA/COOKING VINYL]
*** 1/2
Bully – High Tension
Source: Supplied
Karina Utomo is a bully. When her band mates — all blokes you can trust — want to pull back on the full throttle brutality she screams “Morrre!!” like an Olivia Twist as a Blade Runner replicant. It serves High Tension well on their second album, a 12-track collection of guillotine-dropping sludge punk that hits heavy heights on Guillotine (SNAP), tempo-shifting treachery on Sports and death-growl anarchy on Iceman, acting ice-cold to make it in this world; an idea first proselytised by Andre 3000. Matt Young (King Parrot) duets dramatically on Lapindo and Adalita’s riffs charge in like an old friend. Bully shoves you against your locker…then slips money in your pocket. / MIKEY CAHILL
SOUNDS LIKE: the pyschosphere takes control
IN A WORD: vice-like
high tension – Melbourne punk rock band with second album Bully out July 2015
Source: Supplied
COMMUNION
YEARS & YEARS
[UNIVERSAL]
***
Years & Years album – Communion
Source: Supplied
British trio (with expat Aussie Mikey Goldsworthy on bass) Years & Years have one of the year’s classiest pop hits in King. The UK No.1 distils dance beats, ‘80s synth work and Olly Alexander’s warm vocals. Their debut album offers plenty of pop thrills, if none as regal as King. Last year’s single Desire sounds like Ed Sheeran gone dub house, Real and Worship recall a moodier Sam Smith. Shine followed King to No.1 in the UK with more bittersweet beats and Alexander’s sky-high vocals. While things can get a bit samey, the tender electronic ballads Eyes Shut and the piano and heart-driven lament Memo suggest Years & Years may be what Savage Garden could have become had they not split. / CAMERON ADAMS
SOUNDS LIKE: the Sam Smith album you can dance to
IN A WORD: slick
Years and Years
Source: Supplied
GET TO HEAVEN
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING
[SONY]
****
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING – GET TO HEAVEN (SONY)
Source: Supplied
It’s rare that critically acclaimed math rock and art pop can cut through the pomposity but for Manchester four-piece Everything Everything album three is as intelligent as it is fun. Appearing on Australian radars their fab 2013 album Arc, Get to Heaven pushes Jonathon Higgs vocally and melodically, fusing pop, progressive rock and dub influences. Its title track recalls Foals at their most fun (Total Life Forever-esque) with a Talking Heads-influenced jam as does Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread but the dub of The Wheel (is Turning Now) is the album’s calling card and has the jaw-dropping and head-scratching hallmarks of Everything Everything in one handy, five-minute package. / SAM KELTON
SOUNDS LIKE: smarter than your average band.
IN A WORD: beguiling
Manchester band Everything Everything
Source: Supplied
LIFE DEATH TIME ETERNAL
TUKA
[EMI]
*** 1/2
Tuka – Life Death Time Eternal
Source: Supplied
Australian hip-hoppers Thundamentals enjoyed critical and commercial success with last year’s So We Can Remember. Now one of the group’s dual MCs, Brendan “Tuka” Tuckerman, has resurfaced with a “personal” third solo album – its buzziest single the Drakey breakup song Tattoo. Life Death Time Eternal, the title kinda vintage Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, is experimental, bass-heavy urban music rather than trad rap. Tuka’s lyrics are emo, albeit quizzically so. LDTE is an epic, quasi-choral opener, while Nirvana grungifies trip-hop. Still, Tuka does have anthems — like My Star, a funk throwback, complete with whistling. Bigger yet, State Of Mind bursts into a drum ‘n’ bass Flumiverse. / CYCLONE WEHNER
SOUNDS LIKE: Tha crossroads
IN A WORD: venturesome
Thundamentals with Poncho (wearing black and white trousers), DJ Morgs (wearing light grey shirt), MC Tuka (wearing dark grey shirt, a few years before cutting a solo record), MC Jeswon.
Source: Supplied
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