Tame Impala's The Slow Rush and The Beauty of Multiple Listens

Picking up any Tame Impala record is a submission to wherever it might lead you. With both Lonerism and Currents, that journey started in one place, ebbed and flowed, often wildly and always groovy, but you never forgot the beginning of the journey. It formed the base of the rest of the record. On the band’s newest album, that is still true but with a somewhat unfamiliar twist. With The Slow Rush, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker refuses to settle into a singular sound, still never abandoning what he does best, and delivers a ride filled with magic, heartbreak, and hope.

The Slow Rush is not wholly different from Parker’s previous work in Tame Impala. That shouldn’t be surprising. When you find a formula that works, there is no need to deviate from it. However, where The Slow Rush does deviate and Parker does expand his sound are some of the most exhilarating and fulfilling moments throughout the breezy hour-long album.

There is not a song on the 12-track record that is not infectious. True to Tame Impala’s form, Parker tackles each song as though they are shapeshifting amoebas. Almost no song on the album is the same song from start to finish. Sometimes that is through a somewhat natural progression: A to B is simple enough. Other times, Parker moves from A to F and back to C with no clear-cut path between any of them. The listener is simultaneously left wondering how he got there and slack-jawed at the journey they have just taken.

The Slow Rush operates in a very similar space as Parker’s previous work in Tame Impala but in more disparate ways. “Posthumous Forgiveness” features an acoustic guitar to the tune of what sounds like it could double as part as one of Ennio Morricone’s western film scores. The saxophone on “Is It True” is another new dimension Parker adds to the band’s repertoire.

Despite its title, The Slow Rush does not ask you to be patient. You are immediately ingratiated with sounds from the journey Parker is taking you along at the beginning of each track. “Breathe Deeper” opens with an infectious rhythm that you feel in your bones and Parker never truly abandons as the track changes shape. The bassline that starts shortly after the beginning of “Lost in Yesterday” forms the foundation for the track, and even when Parker moves away from that sound, you feel that rhythm pulsing in your ear.

Tonally, the album is quite sporadic (for better or worse). On tracks like “Posthumous Forgiveness” a heavy cloud hovers over the track as Parker muses about being able to play his late father his music and converse with him. However, that’s only the latter half of the song. The beginning opens with lyrics parsing out what it means to try to forgive someone who cannot explain why they did what they did. “On Track” strikes a different, hopeful tone. (It also has this crazy fun drum kick that just explodes through your speakers). There are so many reasons to be down, but we are still here even if we have no idea what we are doing here. Maybe we are all still on track in one way or another.

The best part of The Slow Rush is not that first listen when everything feels fresh and new. It is on a second listen, a third listen, a tenth listen, when you start hearing parts of the songs you did not hear before. The more you listen, the more you can peel back the layers that Parker stitches together for each of these tiny voyages through his mind. It is when you hear the xylophone on “Instant Destiny” or when your ears start to parse the multitude of ways Parker changes the drum beats even in a single song. Each track has an infectious groove, but the beauty of Tame Impala’s music is not just the ability to make you want to move your body but to get completely lost in the music while you are doing it.