From the retro psych-rock for audiophiles that brought Tame Impala to prominence with Innerspeaker in 2010, Kevin Parker has long since moved on — especially across his last two albums. Still, when his fifth record Deadbeat was announced as a rave album, following collaborations with Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga and The Weeknd, it came as a surprise. Yet even though the dozen new tracks swap fuzz guitars for four-to-the-floor beats, the material hardly suits long nights in dark techno basements or illicit raves. Despite the repetition, Parker remains too attached to classic song structures, earworm melodies, chord changes and vocals. On genuinely club-ready tracks like »Ethereal Connection« and »End Of Summer«, one might even wish he’d just keep quiet for a bit.
Closer reference points are disco and French house, with their more playful and melodic takes on dance music — particularly since the excellent singles »Dracula« and »Afterthought« both nod unmistakably to Michael Jackson. Parker’s falsetto sounds less Lennon-esque than ever, and his melancholy lyrics, full of self-doubt and alienation, reveal new shades. Deadbeat is a mixed bag as a pop album — uneven, but a bold career move nonetheless. Still, the shift from psych to dancefloor was executed far more decisively years ago by Dan Snaith, first as Caribou, later as Daphni.
Deadbeat
