Lunchtime today, head still reeling from a 550 mile drive yesterday, I settled down on my couch with a book and Tame Impala Innerspeaker on the deck*. Fifteen minutes later I woke up and suavely wiped the drool from my chin, having taken a gently therapeutic journey floating across the sky on billowy pillowy clouds.
Music to send you to sleep. In a good way?
A Beatles nut of my acquaintance first hipped me to Tame Impala Innerspeaker shortly after it was released in 2010 and I bought it because a) I liked the cover b) I’m very difficult to sell records too c) It was a Wednesday; although not necessarily in that order.
I can clearly remember putting it on for the first time and thinking ‘oh, that’s very Beatles-y’ and quite liking it. I will come out and say whilst I have always quite liked bits of Innerspeaker it has never really moved me.
I am always utterly in awe of people who can do it all themselves and Kevin Parker does, mostly, on Innerspeaker. He spins his own musical world out of melody and candyfloss psychedelia and his vocals are very reminiscent of a certain John Winston Lennon throughout. It is a consistent, well-played and very well-produced/mixed LP.
Highlights for me are:
- Jeremy’s Storm – an instrumental woven from some lovely clean guitar sounds and a bit more bass.
- Lucidity – the floatingest of the floaties and Parker’s best 60’s vocal on the LP.
- The Bold Arrow Of Time – for the title alone and for some excellent Cream-influenced heaviness.
- I Don’t Really Mind – hints at a ear-worming pop sensibility and a future electronic direction.
Which are all great but Innerspeaker is just pitched at too treble-y and wafty a level for me. Every so often I would really like Tame Impala hit a harder, deeper, weightier seam of psych, as at 53 minutes, despite excellence of playing and execution it becomes all too samey and I just want to stomp off and play Lawnmower Deth. The similarly pitched early Stone Roses tempered their summer tones with a superlative drummer and a working class earthiness.
For me the best thing of all about Innerspeaker is the excellent video they released for the single ‘Lucidity’ where they send a weather balloon skywards in Victoria and you can see the curve of the Earth**.
So Innerspeaker did a job for me today and I am grateful, right LP at the right time and it isn’t a bad album at all, it just needs a touch of grit to anchor it a little, to make it matter more when you listen to it.
Tame Impala, bit too Same Impala, but certainly not Lame Impala.
Until then, I will keep pushing out the Z’s until I can see the curve of the Earth.
1073 Down.
*joint best thing about working from home.
**yesterday I passed two bits of graffiti proclaiming the Earth is flat. Scotland, eh?
That ‘Cream heaviness” comment kinda got me and the image of you “suavely wiping the drool from your chin”. I love those kinds of naps. It grosses people out but they’re the best.
I wish we could drive 500 miles to anywhere, right now. Ah, lockdown.
“Tame Impala, bit too Same Impala, but certainly not Lame Impala.” Coulda been a complete 11-word review? 😉
I hear you.
You know what I’m most tired of? Idiots. I’m a pretty nice guy, and I can put up with a lot. Probably too much, some would say. But what I genuinely cannot stand anymore are all these selfish asshats who think it doesn’t apply to them and just go about doing what they want, all the while thinking we’re fools and weaklings for following the restrictions. I swear, sometimes I think one half of humanity wants the other half to get sick and/or die just because they can’t be bothered to be inconvenienced. Yes sir, I am mighty tired of that myopic selfishness.
Unfortunately, I rather suspect it’s the wrong half of humanity who will kick the bucket.
I sincerely hope not.
550 mile drive? Running from the law I suppose?
Breaking the what? Breaking the what?! Breaking – the – law!!!
Wednesday Night and Mr 1537 is baaaaaaaack!
God I love that LP!!!
I have a couple of Tame Impala albums, but not this one. Can’t even say I’ve ever heard it (shocker!). I get what you’re saying about sometimes wishing they got a bit deeper into an psych groove. Something a bit earthier, maybe. But I do like some of their airy jams. I’ll check this one out.
Also, that graffiti is purely intended to prevent the English from trespassing. Y’know, in the absence of a wall and suchlike.
As I said to Bruce here, I was a first day buyer for Lonerism but I still can’t hear anything in that one, it bores the tits off me. I gave it to my daughter who absolutely loves Currents.
This is a good, perfectly pleasant LP and it really hit the spot yesterday.
I get it with the graffiti, I did worry about driving off the edge when I saw the sign to Ecclefechan (just love that name! it makes me happy every time I see the sign)
I’m not much of a fan of Lonerism either. It has its moments, but too few of them.
I’m much more of an Ecclefechan fan, myself.
Tories, though.
Que?
EccleTories.
I can definitely hear the Beatles/psychedelic influence here. Your friend done good.
The video is great too, what a neat idea.
In the interests of balance, I must take the part of my countryman.
I can see that for someone who mostly reveres bands with “Deth” or “Savige” or “Blud” in their names, Kevin Parker’s Tame Impala might be a bit, um, tame. But for those coming from a less ear-smashing metal direction, it all sounds interesting and lively. So much so, that when you reported snoozing to it, I assumed that was a 1537 joke. When I first heard Innerspeaker I found it a bit scuzzy and noisy.
Can we call it an honourable 1:1 draw?
The sleeping bit was meant entirely as a compliment, it was a lovely thing to do, for the LP to enable.
I like the idea of Impala Deth Blud, Maybe we could ask Kevin to produce us?
I do like this LP but it doesn’t move me and I do find it samey over the course of 50 minutes. I was a first day buyer for Lonerism and I still haven’t found anything to like in that one – I gave it to my daughter last year, she loves Currents.
I’ll take an honourable draw with you anytime Bruce.