5 Takeaways From Tame Impala’s New Album Deadbeat

Tame Impala were once a record collector’s idea of a rock band. Then they were a rock band that was one guy and that one guy was also a record collector. 2015’s Currents took that proposition as far as it could go, and when Kevin Parker dropped “End of Summer” as the lead single from his fifth studio album, Deadbeat, something else became apparent: Every crate-digger eventually finds his way to the dancefloor.

Deadbeat is Parker’s electronic and dance album, but it’s also his new father album, as his first daughter was born the year after the pre-pandemic The Slow Rush. As such, he throws in some dadly nods to Family Guy and Pablo Escobar, while still treading familiar emotional territory for Tame Impala: jealousy, paralysis, and social anxiety. Parker digs into his psyche not necessarily through lyrics but by paying homage to the music he ostensibly loves, like Jeff Mills’ “The Bells” (“Not My World”), the Beatles (“See You on Monday”) and, apparently, DJ Khaled and Rihanna’s “Wild Thoughts” (“Obsolete”). Here are five takeaways from the album.

An Intimate, Unvarnished Opening

Deadbeat opens with a demo track of Parker singing over a house piano riff. It’s a meaningful gesture—stripping aside the glossy varnish of Currents and The Slow Rush, conjuring the image of Parker alone in a room, surrounded by the highest of high-end recording equipment. That piano, fuzzy with room sound, reappears as a motif throughout the album. Later, on the skeevy synth-funk single “Loser,” a murmured “fuck” wanders its way into the final mix, like the fossil record of an off-the-cuff earlier version. For an artist obsessed with craft, Parker has gotten more comfortable letting the seams show.