Tame Impala

“CURRENTS”

Interscope Records

Tame Impala’s first two albums were prayers answered for acid-rock buffs. On tour, Kevin Parker played the barefoot Australian guitar maestro, a one-man studio band who emerged from his basement to peer down at his foot pedals and conjure waves of psychedelic incense.

On “Currents,” a lush production landscape heavy on keyboards and soul inflections usurps the guitars.

Memory and loss haunt Parker’s new songs, but they also proclaim a readiness to embrace change and push forward. The guitar mist lifts. Though still dense and detailed in a way that lives up to Parker’s reputation as an obsessive studio hermit, “Currents” also feels more spacious and danceable in its finest moments.

He doesn’t ease listeners into the new sound. Instead, “Let it Happen” boldly announces it. The opening track unfolds over seven scenic minutes, punctuated by hand claps and distorted vocals, while riding a silky groove. About halfway through, the sound of a skipping compact disc suggests a sudden detour, and then festivities resume with a robot vocal that nods to Daft Punk. Tame Impala with a club hit on its hands? It could happen.

High-end bass dances with synthesizers on “Disciples,” and “The Moment” basks in subterranean rumble and finger snaps. These tracks aren’t in a big hurry, but they swing in a way that Tame Impala never has before. Though the album flows with typically fastidious attention to connecting themes and sounds, it does have some padding: the distorted narration in “Past Life”; the recessed vocals of “Reality in Motion,” which sounds orphaned from earlier Tame Impala albums.

Just as Parker’s narrators are going through a transition, so is Parker the artist. This isn’t the album anyone expected of him. But from this heady, unexpected vantage point, anything seems possible.

— Greg Kot,

Chicago Tribune