Tame Impala - Lonerism

"The Waifs are from Perth"

not according to this thing called "the internet"

Eh, they come from Albany, which is a few hundred miles south of Perth, which in Australian terms, particularly western Australian terms, might as well be Perth.

Suburbs of Perth!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Western_Australia_location_map.svg/270px-Western_Australia_location_map.svg.png

lol
i surrender..

john butler is from freo, which is almost perth

i understand your in chicago, but not from chicago?(maybe australia?!)
xpost

I totally think almost Perth should count. Even my Australian relatives have never been to Perth.

I keep hearing about these people and mentally filing them with Beach House under 'bands who I never need to actually hear a note from.'

Which I realize is unfair but the NME No. 1 album of the year list isn't HELPING, you see.

lol. I probably should give the new Beach House a spin now that you mention it.

I've only had this one for two weeks and I can safely say it's one of the best records I've heard this year.

Maybe it helps you get interested, Ned, or... maybe it does exactly the opposite but one of the first things I heard from them is their cover of Blueboy's 'Remember Me' (which in turn samples Marlena Shaw's Woman of the Ghetto). They sound way fuzzier and trippier nowadays but it's as good an introduction as any other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27RYzoZLR7w

I feel like this band is special enough to recommend them to people who are unsure. Why not?

1) NME
2) people are talking about it

If both of these apply to an album, you need not check it out.

I tend to do the same.. I held off listening to tame impala for a while. i don't know why 2) is so accurate but it is

i heard them, ned! just the other day. and beach house too! what a day that was...

You are the cutting edge!

as part of my top 50 countdown on ilm. i learned a lot. i learned how to love.

first off i was like heres some dudes sounding like the sixties again then i was like WOAH

opening track of lonerism in particular

Okay I just gave a couple of tracks a listen and I kinda sense I don't need to hear any more. Just very fussily polite trippiness.

m@tt's comment about them being a rock version of Caribou is by far the best description of them/argument for their existence that I have come across yet

I don't know... is it not kind of silly to fully ignore a band just because NME champions it?

This album suffered a bit for me after I listened to it after a load of 60s psych, and when you listen to that stuff it's really apparent that the conventions of rock music hadn't settled by that stuff, so all this really batshit stuff creeps in. There's so much more folk and music hall and other influences apparent melodically and harmonically as well, things that have bled out of most rock music over the intervening decades. That stuff doesn't come across in Tame Impala at all, although they've got the sonics and the voices and the recording effects down pat, their songwriting horizons feel limited by comparison. Still a nice enough record though.

The other way you could describe it 'slavish and cautious recreation of a sound that was never cautious in the first place' but that accounts for a lot of rock music nowadays.

I don't think that's quite fair, Matt. Compare it to the Allah-Las - that's a slavish recreation. Tame Impala have clearly heard those 60s records, but I'd say they're trying to copy the spirit rather than the songs.

kinda like the yang to Uncle Acid the Deadbeats yin, y'know?

(as in: weirdly Lennon-esque vocals taken in different emotional directions while an overall trippiness prevails)

I still don't get "Lonerism". I loved their other album, but I don't think this album is as good - so I'm confused by the NME's album of the year verdict. I still don't think adding synths helps, and I don't think the songs are as good. I may be in a minority of one there.

And having listened to psychedelia for years and years... Yes, you can't compare it to the original stuff (and I agree with Matt's point, the references are pretty narrow) but it does remind me of the first Sun Dial LP which was equally reverent to the style. Maybe I need to persevere with "Lonerism", but something about it doesn't really make me want to go back and listen to it.

I still don't think adding synths helps, and I don't think the songs are as good.

i agree w/ this completely. there's something naggingly annoying about this record that i never got from the first

That stuff doesn't come across in Tame Impala at all, although they've got the sonics and the voices and the recording effects down pat, their songwriting horizons feel limited by comparison.

I kind of feel like this is missing the point; obv there's no 'wtf' factor where it feels like any old sort of batshit thing can happen, but that's bcz dude kind of approaches writing songs the way, say, M.C. Escher approaches painting staircases (this is true of the first album also)

i think that might be giving them a little too much credit

eh maybe

perhaps I am confusing the potentiality of what I'm hearing with its actuality

Tame Impala have clearly heard those 60s records, but I'd say they're trying to copy the spirit rather than the songs

That's probably fair. They're definitely trying to copy the sound, and yeah probably the spirit too, but I'm not sure they're entirely successful in the latter. The album's enjoyable enough but short on surprises.

cleared from all the extras surrounding them - the essence of the melodies is very simple and repetitive.

and that's the problem of this otherwise fine album

"extras"

ok nm I think I understood your exact point

the question is do you agree?

I listened to this while drifting of on the train and dreamt it was actually a recording of my band playing. Weirdly I started getting annoyed because of all the mistakes. The one track that did hit the spot was Elephant, which had some neatly cryptic little flourishes but in the whole this is not remarkable music.

yeah, it's nice but the songwriting isn't very strong and the whole thing gets a bit boring after a while.
I still like "feels" a lot but I don't really listen to the rest anymore.

otm^

I wish they'd commit either going full-on psych or pop. As it stands, it's a bit unsatisfying. I do love a few of the tracks though.

I've only just heard this album, and this band, as of yesterday. It's still registering with me so who knows if I'll change my opinion in a few days/weeks/months. I like it. (Album of the year? No, but it's good.) It sort of scratches the same itch that Unknown Mortal Orchestra did last year. A lot of the comments above I would apply to them too.

Are these guys worth seeing live? They came through town a year or so back and I heard bad things. I could definitely see how they would be dodgy and not so good live. However, I'd be curious to see if they've stepped it up since they're getting more high profile. This stuff could be really interesting live if done right.

Saw them a couple of months ago and I thought it was fine. I was afraid of something like 2 hours of psychedelic nonsense. But yes not everyone liked it.

feels like we only go backwards is a jam

this reminds me of my youth. this is 70s prog-rock. i used to love that kind of stuff. but somehow i can't really take symphonic rock serious anymore.

A Tampa lime.

This has got me going from suspicion to "hmm maybe" to, wow this is really great. Elephant hooked me in - sort of a cross between T-Rex and Canned Heat. But 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' and the accompanying video has hooked me. There are little moments in that track, particularly the harmony where the guys sings 'Every part of me says go ahead' that I keep wanting to skip back to.