The band’s trajectory changed over the course of a single track, which stretches out over nearly eight minutes and indulges in remix-style record-skipping and lengthy stretches without vocals.īetween the disco grooves, Parker still finds time for Tame Impala’s sonic signatures-floaty vocals, soul-searching lyrics, fleeting interludes. Even fans who had noticed Parker’s increasing pop sensibilities across 2012’s Lonerism were somewhat taken aback by Currents’ bravura opening statement, “Let It Happen,” an ambitious dance-floor epic that foregrounded glitter-bomb synths and alternately dipping and peaking rhythms. Yet this third album saw him applying more painstaking control than ever before, not just playing and writing every single part but recording and mixing the entire thing as well. Parker had always made Tame Impala records as a solo endeavor, using a proper band primarily to realize songs in a live setting. That meant mostly sidelining guitars and ramping up the lead role of those synths. By the time Currents arrived in 2015, the Fremantle home-studio whiz had made his grandest leap yet, offering his particular take on outsized, club-ready pop. Tame Impala may have been forged in the familiar fires of guitar-driven psych-rock, but Kevin Parker began expanding that brief almost immediately, shifting from dank, distorted solos to widescreen, synth-swept fantasias.