In his new album, The Slow Rush, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala combines deeply personal lyrics informed by his own experiences with upbeat, psychedelic tracks. A focus on the past and fear for the future pervades the album, opening with ‘One More Year’ and progressing through the twelve tracks like a ticking time bomb counting down to the foreboding final track ‘One More Hour’. The essential feature musically here are the drums and bassline, creating funk-like rhythms that underpin Parker’s synth melodies and confessional lyrics resulting in a technicolour explosion. Experimental as ever, ‘The Slow Rush’ forces different sounds and moods to interact and uniquely combines Parker’s upbeat, kaleidoscopic rhythms with his heart-rending lyrics. 

The opening track ‘One More Year’ introduces the album’s theme of the passage of time and explores feelings of being overwhelmed by nostalgia; dwelling on letting go of a reckless youth, Parker laments ‘I never wanted any other way to spend our lives / now one of these is gonna be the last for all time.’ This then morphs into ‘Instant Destiny’, a song about Parker’s thought process when proposing to his wife, who he married on the 9th of February 2019. Parker’s high-pitched vocals cut in immediately with the lyrics ‘I’m about to do something crazy / no more delayin’ / no destiny is too far’. The previously released single ‘Borderline’ may have become a skippable track for some listeners, however the album version actually has subtle differences: Parker disclosed there were ‘things that I could hear in the song that I didn’t realise no one else could, for example the bassline.’

This song functions as a confession, a mournful ode to Parker’s late father

‘Posthumous Forgiveness’, was also a previously released single, but is perhaps the most striking song on the album. This song functions as a confession, a mournful ode to Parker’s late father which is split into two parts, the first being filled with resentment. Parker accuses ‘and you could store an ocean in the holes / in any of the explanations that you gave / and while you still had time, you had a chance / but you decided to take all your sorrys to the grave.’ He then aggressively questions ‘Did you think I’d never know? / Never wise up as I grow / Did you hope I’d never doubt? / Never wonder, work it out?’ The poignancy of these lyrics lies in the knowledge of the split between Parker’s parents when he was young; the impact that his divorce had on Parker is unpacked in this song as he digs up a traumatic past and works through the complex emotions this creates. The middle of the song builds, perhaps representing a culmination of anger, before shifting into the ‘forgiveness’ of the song’s title. In this second half, Parker excuses his father’s actions: ‘you were runnin’ for cover / doin’ like any other / fallin’ out with a lover / you didn’t know that I’d suffer’. He longs for the parental relationship he lost, mourning ‘wanna tell you ‘bout the time / I was in Abbey Road / Or the time that I had / Mick Jagger on the phone / I thought of you when we spoke’. This song tracks Parker’s journey to forgiveness, and uses the psychedelic trippy composition that he is known and loved for to explore the traumatic events of his childhood. 

Despite it’s danceability, this doesn’t mean it lacks experimentation

It is at this point that the album becomes more light-hearted, the following track ‘Breathe Deeper’ perhaps being the funkiest song on the album with its repetitive rhythms and 70’s vibes. Despite it’s danceability, this doesn’t mean it lacks experimentation; it is a song that shifts and morphs, becoming different versions of itself as it progresses. ‘Tomorrow’s Dust’ comments on the passage of time and notions of cause and effect, and ends with a recording of Parker’s wife talking about the future and the unknown. ‘On Track’ is a power ballad that grapples with feelings of imposter syndrome; Parker confides that he feels he hasn’t done enough in his life or career in the lyrics ‘One other minor setback / but strictly speaking, I’m still on track / And all my dreams are still in sight / strictly speaking, I’ve got my whole life.’ ‘Lost in Yesterday’ examines feelings of nostalgia, this shifting between future and past becoming disorientating. Parker describes this song as being about ‘nostalgia as a drug to which we are all addicted’, as he looks back on his past through rose-tinted glasses, reflecting ‘when we were living in squalor / wasn’t it heaven? / back when we used to get on it / four outta seven’. He then questions ‘it might have been something, who’s to say? / Does it help to get lost in yesterday?’, and this is a question that underpins the album.

This is a question that underpins the album

‘It Might Be Time’ again confronts the notion of time and the future, as Parker questions ‘cause I just wanna keep this dream alive for now / don’t they know, nothing lasts forever?’. This anxiety about leaving the past behind is recklessly abandoned in ‘Glimmer’, a danceable instrumental track that focuses on playful bass and drums. Parker exclaims ‘I just wanna let it go’, expressing a readiness to leave behind the past that contrasts the apprehension of the rest of the album. 

The final song, ‘One More Hour’, looks forward to a future spent with Parker’s wife. This song embraces simplicity; it is introspective and foreboding as Parker finally turns to the future. It focuses on his marriage, as he confesses ‘one more hour and you know your life is one to share / just a minute baby, right before we go through here / all these people said we wouldn’t last a minute here’. He seems to feel guilt about the future he can give to his wife, but inevitably the time bomb ticks, and as the song ends, Parker is forced to enter into the future the album has apprehended. 

This album is deeply personal, functioning as a confession through which Parker is able to grapple with his traumatic past and deal with the passage of time. It is a strikingly poignant album about change, about the impact time has on humans, about the past and about the future, and this is explored flawlessly through Parker’s characteristic glittering technicolour rhythms and psychedelic experimentation.

The Slow Rush is available now via Universal Music Australia

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Single Review: Tame Impala – Borderline
Single Review: Tame Impala – Posthumous Forgiveness