Tame Impala - The Slow Rush (Review)
Tame Impala seem to have lost their creative momentum, despite reaching a new peak of success...
First of all, you have to understand that for as ubiquitous a presence in the pop, indie and rap scene as Tame Impala has become, it's Kevin Parker who's really found himself in the spotlight. The frontman and sole true member of the group, the rest of the band only contributing when it comes to performances and not in the studio, and as a result it could be expected that he'd get lost in his own head during the recording process of this album. Whilst that seems to hold true from close inspection of the album's songs, Kevin has also revealed that he only really started work on The Slow Rush in late 2018, which seems odd due to how little differences there are between the style of this album and his last. Speaking of his last outing, 2015's generation-defining Currents, most people would agree it was the moment when Kevin embraced his poppier tendencies and took his brand of psychedelic pop on its most adventurous and exciting journey to date. Perhaps this is why The Slow Rush fails to leave quite as big an impression on me, as unlike its predecessor there is no bold sonic leap or shift in direction to immediately defy expectations and blow me away with.
The thing is, I've spent a lot of time with this album at this point. It's been out for over a month now, and whilst I definitely feel as though I understand it a lot better than initially, I can't say that I connect to it in quite the way I hoped to. There's no denying Kevin's come a long way since his early psych-rock days and heavily 60's inspired music, but considering how much emphasis he's put on the lyrics on The Slow Rush I feel somewhat cheated at how vague and even cringe-inducing they can get. Of course, ever since Innerspeaker Kevin has had a slightly hazy style of writing, but there are songs here that seem to lose their focus entirely well before their time. Considering how prominent the theme of time is, I would have quite liked to see a deeper exploration of the concept outside of the admittedly fantastic singles.
The theme of time itself is incredibly well integrated into the album as a whole, probably an example of how Kevin's masterful arrangements can extent outside of the instrumentals themselves. On the opening track "One More Year", Kevin introduces us to the very relatable and very real fear of stagnating with lines like "I worry our horizon's been nothing new" and "what we did...has slowly become all we do". It's a phenomenal start to a phasing, looping, bouncy tune that is excellent up until the bridge, where the relatable lyrics devolve into cringy filler where Kevin appears to be rambling about the length of a year; whilst I get the choice to include this in the song, I know from previous songs like "The Moment" and "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" that he can write better than this, and so whilst I really enjoy the immersive instrumental here it's a song that brings up issues that only get worse as we move through the tracklist.
It feels unfair to continuously compare this album to Currents, an album that did have its own problems, but when the sound is so derivative of his previous work what else am I to do? If I was to sum up The Slow Rush in a sentence, I'd describe it as a more disco and house inspired version of its predecessor without as much musical experimentation. I won't pretend that it doesn't have its moments of grandeur, take the staggering synth swells of "Posthumous Forgiveness", a heartfelt ode to Kevin's dad and perhaps the album's best track. It's a well written song that expands on the base sound palette displayed but rarely built upon throughout the tracklist. Most of the songs share the same slightly funky, gloriously retro sound, but almost none of them take the time to actually explore the sound via interesting musical choices. What this means is that you've got a texturally rich and immaculately produced album that doesn't make many interesting decisions in terms of the direction it goes in, and Tame Impala seem content to coast on the magnificence of the sound alone.
Now's the point in the review where I want to address certain songs that either made or broke the album for me and first on the chopping block I'm afraid has to be the utterly redundant "Glimmer", a two minute passage of pointless disco pandering that after the majority of the album has already passed feels like the least interesting, least necessary interlude ever. Of course, in true Tame Impala fashion even the worst tracks create the illusion of something better, as this brief song swaggers around in a sparkling suit at least five sizes too big that inadvertently shows off the gaps in the music all too obviously. It's followed by the somewhat raucous "One More Hour", a cluster of ideas that don't quite mesh as they should, something utterly bizarre given how seamless and smooth every previous element has gelled together in all the previous songs on this album. It's a rather grand closer and after the slightly overlong runtime of this album feels deserved and triumphant, even if it too goes on for too long with bulky passages of self indulgent, unfulfilling and (only very slightly) off kilter fun. I wish it was better executed, but I'll take it.
As for the album highlights, I have to give it to the revised version of earlier single "Borderline" with its amped-up bass and smooth-yet-bombastic take on the Tame Impala sound, although it crumbles beneath the ear-piercing siren and earth-shuddering bass of "It Might Be Time", a distorted tune that demands to be played loudly and doesn't let up for a second. It's a rare occasion of Kevin Parker taking that aforementioned base palette from which all these songs are crafted and taking things to the next level creatively, taking his head out of his mixing-focused hidey hole and exploring the possibilities of guitars in his music once more. For the record, I'm not complaining about the lack of guitars on this album, rather I'm wishing more songs had some sort of more emphatic lead that on this particular song is provided by the guitar, rather than simply coasting on those same themes and fun but unadventurous housey beats.
Overall, I have to commend Kevin on producing his most cohesive and high-quality album to date: it's just a shame that, for the most part, it comes at the cost of interesting music and powerful leads. You could spend ages digging into the subjective preferences on whether Kevin overuses effects such as reverb and phasers, but what I find the most lacking is a distinct deep cut that brings the same oomph and drive that the singles do (especially since "Breathe Deeper" is now a single too). Still, there's a lot to like about this album, although I can't help feeling underwhelmed after such a huge wait to find an album that acts as a less engaging extension of Currents with less highlights and more filler. I want more from my Tame Impala next time around.
6.5/10
Best Tracks: One More Year; Borderline; Posthumous Forgiveness; Breathe Deeper; Lost In Yesterday; It Might Be Time
Worst Tracks: Instant Destiny; Tomorrow's Dust; Glimmer
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"The Slow Rush"
Tame Impala
Tame Impala
14th February 2020
Modular
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Thank you so much for reading the first full-length review I've done since January! It felt great to do something longer and more in depth again, especially when I had so much to say. The reason it's been such a while is partially due to the chaos of school and Covid-19 these past couple of months, but primarily due to my new genre-based monthly recaps where I cover more albums in slightly less depth in order to talk about more of the music I listen to. If you stuck around this long then thank you very much, I'm very grateful. I'd be curious to know what you think about this somewhat divisive album, so feel free to comment your thoughts.
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