(KTLA) — Australian music maestro Kevin Parker’s fifth studio album as Tame Impala had some fans uneasy weeks ahead of its arrival on Friday. Longtime listener reactions to lead single “End of Summer” ranged from confusion to derision.
The 7-minute house-infused dance track was immediately knocked for its opaque focus, in addition to some relatively straightforward production, which drew concerns Parker was “selling out” by creating “H&M music.” Subsequent singles, “Loser,” and “Dracula,” offered a clearer vision (and are just better songs), so there was reason to remain optimistic about “Deadbeat.”
In the lead-up to the release, Parker sat for a chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, where he discussed “Deadbeat”‘s origins, which began with the artist wanting to create something “techno.” This was an exciting prospect going into an initial listen, even if the album ultimately fells more like a foray into chillwave than the dance project you’d think you were getting.
“Deadbeat” opens with the very-Tame Impala titled “My Old Ways,” which begins as a lo-fi piano jam session before becoming yassified by a thrumming club bass right out of Miami’s South Beach. The track works better than it should, thanks to some fun keyboard flourishes and ever-so-slightly psychedelic flute samples to remind you this is a Tame Impala record.
It’s a fine opener.
Parker’s writing on “Deadbeat” has been criticized as being among his worst but given how production-focused the project feels, the non-poetic, stream of consciousness nature of them doesn’t stick out too badly to me, personally. That said, I’m a production over vocals/lyrics person, so I could just be the right sonic audience for this.
Point is, I don’t find the lyrics terrible and won’t be focusing on them too much. “You’re a cinephile, I watch Family Guy, on a Friday night, off a rogue website,” as heard on “No Reply,” is silly but it also knows it’s silly.
“Dracula” and “Loser,” which are among this year’s best pop songs, carry the first third of the album and contain the intrigue and stickiness the previous two tracks don’t. The middle third of the 12-track “Deadbeat” is where the album starts settling into itself but it’s also where things start getting less interesting, and yes, more “H&M.” And that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. There’s nothing truly wrong with the actual sounds that make up the soulless, upbeat ambient pop music that plays in clothing stores like H&M or (RIP) Forever 21 — the godfather of chillwave himself, Ernest Greene, known professionally as Washed Out, helped invent this aesthetic, and he remains to be a terrific musician. British singer-producer S.G. Lewis‘s brilliant 2021 debut, “Times,” very much played around in this sonic sandbox without sounding anonymous or reserved.
This soundscape can work and it almost works here.
Tracks like “Oblivion,” “Not My World,” and “Obsolete,” feature interesting minute-long outros that drastically improve their uneventful lead-ups. It’s hard not to wish Parker had leaned into that production over the “DJ playing happy hour at a rooftop bar” vibe that takes up most of the track time.
But some of it really does work, in other places.
“Piece of Heaven,” possibly the album’s best track, has enough ideas in its production (which sounds like Tears for Fears goes to the club) from the beginning that the eventual dance drops feel less expected or odd than on other tracks. The song, punctuated by plucky synths, eventually fades into a loose, piano-driven outro that serves as a nice bit of grit and gravity in an album that often feels too pristine.
Meanwhile, the album’s true “techno” moment is also one of its best: the throbbing and mesmeric, “Ethereal Connection,” a nearly 8-minute odyssey that begins spare but grows more complex as it progresses. I wish more of the album sounded like this.
Aside from “Ethereal Connection” and the aforementioned, “End of Summer,” the final third features “See You On Monday (You’re Lost)” and “Afterthought,” both of which I wasn’t initially dazzled by but grew to like as I kept listening. “See You” features some pleasant, Beach Boys-y stacked vocals from Parker accented by a jaunty, off-kilter keyboard pattern that come together to make a good pop track by song’s end. “Afterthought” is a straightforward dance-pop song that feels primed for a single release. It’s one of the “dance” tracks that works best since, even if the production is nothing mind-blowing, the lyrics and vocals are interesting enough to make it all work.
Upon the release of “Deadbeat,” some online shared “when your GOAT is washed”-type sentiments about Parker but I don’t share them. “Deadbeat” feels like Parker trying something new and not finding exactly the best ways to fit himself into it. And I’ll never be mad at an artist for doing something different.
It’s unfortunate that Tame Impala’s stellar body of work has set expectations so high because there are many things to like about “Deadbeat.” It’s an “okay” album I could see being re-evaluated as “good” in the coming years. Not every album must be an artist’s “best,” and the album has enough life behind its eyes that I’m still excited for whatever Tame Impala has yet to make.
Score: 6.5/10.