It’s been a crazy week: Obama is staying put as president, and more importantly, a certain herbal consciousness-altering substance has been legalized in Washington and Colorado.
This means one thing: people from those states are going to be loving everything.
Especially music, because let’s be honest, some music is better listened to under the influence of those sweet herbs.
To avoid legal issues, we’ll call this act “applying the deodorant” which makes you stare at your fingers for ages — you’ll quickly understand that they call them fingers, because they “fing.”
Tame Impala must apply the deodorant a lot because their sophomore album, Lonerism is head music.
If The Beatles and Led Zeppelin met in a studio, and had a plethora of hallucinogens, Tame Impala would have been born out of the haze.
Hell, lead singer Kevin Parker sounds like John Lennon and yes, they even have a song called ‘Led Zeppelin,’ so we obviously know where these boys who hail from Australia get their influences from.
On the first track ‘Be Above It,’ they hammer your brain with a repeated whisper of the title, eventually becoming the rhythm track. Parker’s vocals, and a pounding drum bring everything together.
If I use words like “majestic,” and “sound sensations,” you’ll know pretty fast that Tame Impala are all about recreating the stoner sounds of the early ‘70s.
The instrumental soundscape (I swear I haven’t applied the deodorant while writing this) found on ‘Endors Toi’ really drives that home.
Six minute songs abound on this one and most of the time, it’s not enough.
‘Apocalypse Dreams’ builds up some frenetic momentum, cuts off at the peak and turns into a jam.
The aptly titled ‘Mind Mischief’ has some stacked vocal harmonies and Parker rejoicing the fact that even though his mind is playing tricks on him in the land of women, “she remembers my name.”
Tame Impala know how to play loud and on ‘Elephant’ you’ll hear them crank it up to 11.
Some of the coolest lyrics are found on this one too: “He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac/’cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back…” Awesome.
Can I just put on record that listening to the tune ‘Led Zeppelin’ (found on the deluxe version) is the most fun I’ve had in a while?
I danced naked in front of the mirror, not caring that my body resembles a bag of milk. Although my fun equals your sad. You’ll be surprised when you don’t hear Robert Plant’s voice.
There’s no pop hook hit on Lonerism that will be played on the radio, and Tame Impala probably won’t end up headlining a music festival, but they’ll still do your ears a favour when that deodorant is applied. Just apply it in moderation.
