Tame Impala’s 'Deadbeat'

And the music you should check out instead

In 2015, Tame Impala released their 3rd album Currents: a polished, psychedelic pop/rock record that cemented them as my favorite artist. I’d listen to it every time I made the drive from Lexington to Indianapolis to see my now-wife. This album had me out here learning keys and programming analog synthesizers. Kevin Parker’s 2020 follow-up The Slow Rush was a nice addition that moved further towards pop. Though it felt like Currents 2: Electric Boogaloo – with the diminishing returns of a “sequel” – there was still plenty to like about it.

His 2025 release, Deadbeat, though? Oof.

The thing about adoring an artist that releases a new EP less often than the summer Olympics is that a flop stiiiings.

A few years ago at Louisville’s Forecastle music festival, bass bumped in the distance from the EDM stage as I waited for Tame Impala to go on (my first time seeing them). Who the hell would rather be over there when the main stage had Tame and Phoebe Bridgers and Tyler the Creator?

Well, Deadbeat is sorta, uh, for that rave crowd.

It’s been described as an homage to “bush doofs”: folks that love that “doof doof doof” of the bass and party to electronic music in the shrubby deserts of Australia. Think Burning Man, but down under. Yep, Kevin Parker has made a house/dance album that’s “workout music” at best, but possibly just bad. The cymbals and hi-hats are too sharp and cold, the airy vocals don’t work with most of these beats, and there’s little that I want to revisit. It’s partially the departure into a new genre that irks me, but it’s also not a good house/dance album. Aside from a couple of songs like “Dracula” or “My Own Way,” the rest of Deadbeat ranges from forgettable, to kinda bad (the beat and pitch-shifted alien vocals in End of Summer), to really embarrassing (“No Reply’s” line “you’re a cinephile, I watch Family Guy” 🤮).

Tame Impala has been my fave for years because of their masterfully-produced instrumentation: the swirling psych rock odyssey of “Jeremy’s Storm,” those wooly distorted guitars and ‘80s synths of “Mind Mischief,” that bassline and vocal pads of “‘Cause I’m A Man.“ It’s a blissed-out symphony of rock sounds, obsessively crafted. On Deadbeat, many of these core elements are either stripped away or dumbed down. The absence of great production puts more emphasis on the weaker parts of Tame Impala songs: the self-deprecating lyrics, falsetto vocals. And this may be the intent, as Kevin Parker said in an interview with the New Yorker’s Amanda Petrusich, “That’s the ‘Deadbeat’ sound… All the drum machines are going through guitar amps. I wanted to make a simple shabby-sounding album.” Perfectionism is an at times dangerous driver that has shaped Tame Impala, I think culminating with Currents. It seems that age, fatherhood, and fame have allowed Kevin Parker to shed some of his obsessive tendencies (good for him!) but it appears that may be the key to his musical genius (bad for us!).

What I find most disappointing is that this may mark a point of no return in Tame Impala’s trajectory. A guy with a supreme talent for producing live drums and making psych rock seems to have left the building. I mean, this shouldn’t be too jarring for me. Tame Impala has been shifting their sound since like 2016, moving towards pop and producing for artists like The Weeknd and Dua Lipa. But, most of these features and production credits have been decent. And sure, I’m delusional to think that we’d get a return to the fuzzy guitars and vintage synths of his first two releases: Innerspeaker and Lonerism – my desert island albums. But I was pretty confident that his official albums would continue to be good!

Anyways, enough “here lies Kevin”, as this is starting to feel like an obituary.

Here’s the good news if you disliked Deadbeat:

The rise and commercial success of an artist like Tame Impala has produced ripple effects throughout the music industry, in that:

• Young artists saw what Kevin Parker was up to, got inspired, and started making great music too

• Australia has and continues to produce incredible artists

• There’s a big appetite for neo-psych music and capital to support them

• It’s one bad album, shit, maybe it’s within the realm of possibility that I’m overreacting and Tame Impala isn’t cooked

The neo-psych artists that should be on your radar:

Tame Impala is still one of my favorite artists, but above all I think they’ve served me (and many others) as an entry point to surrounding psych genres, and even more interesting bands. All of these artists have been making good shit and most are still actively putting out quality stuff. Even if you genuinely liked Deadbeat, you should 100% check these artists out.

Here’s a playlist of my picks and a little bit about them:

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

The reigning champions of neo-psych, and in my opinion the most dynamic and exciting rock band out there right now. With a whopping TWENTY SEVEN albums released since 2012, ranging from poppy psychedelic stuff to a thrash metal album about climate change, harmonica solos to rap verses. They’re like that Tenacious D line for me right now: “Because I wrote it, and it’s the truth. I fucking love this band, they’re the best band ever, period.” Do not bring KGLW up around me under any circumstances, you’ve been warned.

They removed their discography from Spotify recently (which is approximately ¼ of that platform’s catalog), so you gotta go elsewhere for their stuff. Here’s a mix that gives a little bird’s eye view of King Gizz.

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Frankie and the Witch Fingers and Oh Sees: huge-sounding garage rock with psychedelic touches, for anyone that would be interested in a mosh pit with puffs of pot smoke rising from it.

L’Eclair and Mildlife: tight, late-night, synth-heavy, funky psych. L’Eclair is still the best live band I’ve ever seen.

Khruangbin and Kikagaku Moyo and like 10 other bands doing something similar now: Instrumentals that capture genres and instruments from around the globe. I like to throw on one of their Spotify radio stations for 10/10 mood music to make doing chores feel cinematic.

DOOM GONG: Your friendly neighborhood psych rock band, hailing from Louisville and labeling themselves as “denim psych” because they love wearing jean jackets. Hell yeah, they have a gong player, and, hell yeah, they have two drummers that share a bass drum.

Pond and GUM: Two great Aussie psych artists that have many of the same members as Tame Impala’s touring band, but some different sonic flavors.

Babe Rainbow and Sugar Candy Mountain and La Luz: hazy surf rock that warps between relaxing on an Australian beach to wandering through the Sonoran desert.

Altin Gun: Turkish psychedelic rock band with some of the most unique sounds in the genre.

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What’d you think of Deadbeat? Is it the end of Tame Impala as we know it? Drop a comment below!