Review of 'Deadbeat' by Tame Impala

Kevin Parker swaps out his drumsticks for glowsticks and goes full-blown EDM.

Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker (AKA Tame Impala) has been gradually drifting further away from his psych rock roots with each new album release. Currents saw a shift to glossy synth rock, while The Slow Rush featured elements of Abba-like disco. This time around, the live drums have been completely stripped away in exchange for house beats.  Enter DJ Tame Impala.

It’s not entirely new territory. There was an Orbital-style dance anthem ‘One More Year’ on The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker also had multiple vocal features on the last Justice album. I liked all of these excursions into dance music. A whole album of EDM is a natural next step and should have been something I was excited about. But then I heard the lead singles.

First, we had ‘End of Summer’: an utterly dreary house song that was prematurely released in August (at least wait until September to start singing about summer being over). Then we had ‘Loser’: a song with a decent riff and typically self-deprecating lyrics that was certainly better than ‘End of Summer’, but also would have been a filler track on The Slow Rush. After that we had Halloween anthem Dracula, which I dismissed as a watered-down Justice track (although the production has grown on me a little since).

The problem with all these singles is that none of them seemed particularly forward-thinking or memorable. And is at turns out, much of this album is just that: middle-of-the-road EDM. There are some standout moments that I did enjoy. The way the album opens with a raw recording of Kevin on piano is cool. ‘Ethereal Connection’ is a genuinely exciting techno odyssey. Plus, the line ‘you’re a cinephile, I watch Family Guy’ on ‘No Reply’ is hilarious. But for every peak, there an equal lull like ‘Oblivion’ with its tepid dancehall drums (it reminds me of Drake’s ‘One Dance’).

Usually when Kevin explores a genre, he’ll experiment a bit more and give it his own stamp. Aside from the distinct vocals, I don’t get that sense of uniqueness from this record. I wouldn’t got so far as to call the beats on Deadbeat dead. However, so far this is definitely Tame Impala’s tamest album.

★★★☆☆

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