Album Review: Tame Impala - Currents

Tame Impala finally put to rest the gargantuan guitar riffs and extended organ solos they plagiarised from their dads’ record collections. Now that they’ve finished rewriting Smoke On The Water, the Perth psych-rock band are ready to move to the next astral plane, where a glittering disco ball sets over the horizon every night. 

Currents rocks and sways with a whole new swagger for the band. It sounds less like a drug-fuelled exploration of inner visions than an electronic interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions. Leader and singer Kevin Parker has said that the album’s direction was inspired by the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive, and while he was supremely high on cocaine and mushrooms at the time, he’s managed to transform the melancholy he felt in that classic into a suite of songs that have surprising complexity and depth.

The record is written from the perspective of someone drifting away from a relationship, as song titles like Yes I’m Changing suggest. There’s a maturity to Parker’s writing that was hinted at on the standout song from their last album, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. The regretful longing continues in full force on Currents, as he sings lines like “Wish I could turn you back into a stranger” on Eventually. Tame Impala have transformed themselves into the kind of group that writes introspective anthems where the music is the focus, as well as finally finding a way for Parker to lose those John Lennon comparisons.