tame impala//let it happen

the woozy kevin parker whirlwind

So this new Tame Impala dropped yesterday and everyone is flipping out about it, myself included — and with good reason. This is one of those albums everyone expected to be really good, and it turns out it’s even better than really good — it’s f****ing awesome. Even though I hate to say it, Pitchfork’s review nailed it: Kevin Parker has clearly gotten his heart broken, matured quite a bit, and switched up his musical style significantly — even his lyrics and song titles, like “Yes I’m Changing,” reflect this willingness to adapt to a totally new style and musical identity. The result of this self-conscious shift is an unclassifiable indie-disco-R&B-psychedelic amalgam of an album that’s so, so good.

This song, “Let it Happen,” is the single that came out a while back — so far everything else is only available via streaming. This track is a little microcosm for the album itself, representing something like 8 completely different musical styles in one cohesive piece — sometimes it sounds like a pop track, sometimes an experimental rock one, and at one point it even sounds like some kind of symphonic score. As I expressed in a relatively inappropriate tweet, this album makes me want to kick back on a floatie on the Mediterranean on some sort of euphoric drug cocktail. It also, in my opinion, makes the perfect makeout playlist. Just saying.

Get this album, and get on the Kevin Parker train. To quote the weird genius himself in a recent Grantland interview: “I used to smoke weed and I don’t even smoke weed anymore,” he says, “because, it’s like, the world’s intense enough as it is.” Weird, because this album is the literal perfect druggy soundtrack, but that doesn’t mean we (I) can’t enjoy it 100% sober at 7:45 am, like I did this very morning. Let it happen, bro.