After another five-year gap, Tame Impala returns with his fifth studio album

If you were hoping for another “Currents” or “The Slow Rush”, think again. Legendary one-man band and genre-bending icon Kevin Parker, better known as Tame Impala, released his new album titled “Deadbeat” on October 17. It’s electric and catchy, but while his new direction for where the album wants to go is fresh and intriguing, its destination feels undecided.

The first track, “My Old Ways” opens with Parker’s raw vocals over an acoustic piano, two sounds that may shock listeners familiar with his polished synth, electric guitar and layered vocals and opens the door wide open for what the rest of the album may sound like.

After an acoustic intro, he jumps right back into his traditional sound on the chorus: “Back into my old ways again.”

This may come off as an obvious move by Parker, given the title of the song. But although the lyrics imply that he wants to brush off the old ways and take a more grounded approach to this album, he seems unsure if he really wants to take that leap, or ascend further into the reimagined techno space he himself has created throughout the years.

Parker’s themes on the album is probably the most consistent part of the project, touching on feelings of self-doubt, like you don’t belong in the places that you have found yourself in, or thinking you’re not good enough to be a father, a friend or a performer. This pairs well with the album cover, a grainy black and white close-up photo of Parker holding his son.

With twelve tracks covering 55 minutes, Parker gives himself just as much time as his past projects did to get listeners on board with a somewhat new sound, inspired by “bush doof”, an intense genre of rave music created in his homeland of Australia. But perhaps he should have given himself more room this time around to experiment with the genre and come back with a clearer idea.

With the resurgence of rave music growing ever more popular in music today (i.e. Charli XCX’s “BRAT”) it’s surprising to hear the loose fit that it has on this project, given Parker’s talents and experience with dance and pop music, playing very large parts in his past album success, with songs reaching over 1 billion listens.

In the five years leading up to the album’s release, the four-time Grammy nominee has been completing side-quests, releasing songs for films like “Minions: Rise of Gru” and the critically acclaimed “Barbie”, along with producing Dua Lipa’s last album “Radical Optimism”. He has also been spending time raising a son with his wife, Sophie Lawrence.

While these projects between “The Slow Rush” and “Deadbeat” were well received, it may be suggested that setting more time aside for a well-rounded project with a clear view of how he wants it to sound wouldn’t be a bad thing. Overall, Kevin Parker, aka Tame Impala’s fifth studio album is just slightly above what my colleagues would conclude as “mid”.