‘Lonerism’ is the second album from the Australian psychedelic rock band ‘Tame Impala’, released on Modular Recordings. Like their debut album ‘Innerspeaker’, most of the recording and the intense production was handled by the band leader and multi-instrumentalist, Kevin Parker. The album was heavily inspired by inspired by Todd Rundgren’s album A Wizard, A True Star (1973) .
‘Be Above It’ is like a herd of gazelle limbing urgently from a spreading fire. Springy, fleet of foot and wildly exotic. Lights flicker in the mirror-shades. You will feel mesmerized by the majesty of the swirling, refreshing images . And if you think you have heard all this kind of dizzying psychedelic perfection before – you probably have. On the Beatles’ 1966 disc ‘Revolver’.
If you produce sounds in an intensely solitary place, (Kevin Parker admits that he has) then the gushing waves that sprout forth will be a fanciful and mystically billowing haze of consequence. So ‘Endors Toi’ [You fall asleep] is the sort of thing that will seep into being. Rumbles of bass (Dominic Simper) are squeezed out in a ribald manner, as slightly flatulent sounds. Then spinning discs of feverish light will be sent into space, to entrance and bewitch. Real world, lived in a surreal way. So they say.
‘Apocalypse Dreams’ is cheerful and light. A soft cloud of Northern Soul fabulousness. Insignificant in appearance (like John Lennon’s #9 Dream for example) but full of harsh reality and sad under-the-bed secrecy.
Twangy ‘Mind Mischief’ has rivulets of percussive sounds crisply baking the boozy bass, as it thumps itself against the softly enunciated vocals. Soft and pillowy. ‘Music To Walk Home By’ boils and fizzes like Silver Machine (1972 Hawkwind.) Then the beat abruptly changes, and a glazed sheen illuminates the piece as a bleary beat chokes itself out.
‘Why Won’t They Talk To Me?’ They ask. As the Clangers floozie around trying to find the Iron Chicken. Battling it out in a mangy cotton cloud. This is a fuzzy-felt world of high voltage macrame and pleated folds.
You have probably already heard ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’- this is the song that sounds like an exotic pack of sherbet fruits left fizzing on your tongue. It will clean out your pipes and sparkle up your gums. The sensations digs deep into your brain-box. To kick your sense of nostalgia all around your pumpkin. The vocals (Kevin Parker) are so intensely lofty- and spun so high – that things around you will already feel as if they’re floating upside down. You are going to be so out of control. So grab hold. And do not let go.
‘Keep On Lying’ has a rattling good beat. The most ‘Beach Boys’ of the brood, this song sits itself in the window box. And looks pretty. But then ‘Elephant’ rebounds in the room. And who can ignore it? Just switch that Sabbathy riff on. It’s full of beans. And black paraffin. An oily keyboard is oozed out, and this seeps into the muddy stained rhythms, coating the piece in an oleaginous slime.
‘She Just Won’t Believe Me’ shines the brightest light. Listen to those guitars ease off. Then, suddenly, ‘Nothing That Has Happened So Far…’ has those melodic shifts we expect from Tame Impala. A glaring, slightly unsettling, delving into an unconscious mind. As it is projected to distant astral planes. But relax. We all trip along.
‘Suns Coming Up’ concludes the album with a piano accompanied song. But even this simple song sound is screwed into disconcerting knots … To distance you and to enchant you, in equal measure.
If you can bear the inter-planetry prog-rock enthusiasm of a wild and untamed space cadet – and you feel the need to freak out and to let your mind wander – then this is the album that will transport you to that other place. Wherever it is. Splendid escapism.
Grab the album – one of the best releases of 2012 – Now
-© Neil_Mach December 2012 –
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