Tame Impala: "Let It Happen"

Innerspeaker, Lonerism—to put it mildly, Kevin Parker will admit to being an introvert and an obsessive. And that was true when Tame Impala was starting out merely as a mid-font festival concern and likened to Wolfmother with a straight face. So imagine the effect of spending the past three years playing to increasingly larger crowds and being told you’ve made a modern masterpiece. Parker probably heard “let it happen” countless times in the interim, a variation of “easy does it,” “keep it simple,” and other aphorisms that perfectionists pay to hear from therapists, gurus, Rick Rubin, and other people who command an outrageous hourly fee just to tell you the same shit your first-grade teacher did.

Thanks but no thanks. Nothing just happens on the first single from Tame Impala’s upcoming third LP, and not coincidentally, the title’s implications are that Parker’s very much aware of the stakes here—when he actually sings “let it happen,” it could either be read as a reaction to taking flight or plunging to his death. And yeah, it’s a glittery, 8-minute “single” lit by a disco ball rather than blacklights, with no lead guitars and no indication that the new record is even done. But this is a guy who welcomed comparisons to Pink Floyd and the Beatles and is now featured on one of the year’s biggest pop records.

Parker emerges only when a challenge is worth his efforts. Here he’s reframing Tame Impala as a band who can not only do Daft Punk and Darkside—acts who looked to recreate a pre-MTV period when rock bands, pop acts, and dance producers had access to untold cash and studio time (and drugs)—but do it better. Parker has been praised as a classic rock voice with an electronic producer’s mind and that’s even more pronounced here, as “Let It Happen” seems to be editing itself in real time with all manner of filters, manipulated vocals, swirling ambience, and a startling midsection where he mashes down the looper button and holds it. He’s an expert at conveying the unexpected joy of beginner’s luck behind the boards. But there’s still the introvert and obsessive, singing, “all this running around trying to cover my shadow.” Yeah, people of this sort tend to have a distorted perspective on themselves: Even if Parker feels like he only goes backwards, people tend to overlook the next line—”every part of me says, go ahead.” As if anyone really needed to tell him, “let it happen.”

Tame Impala: "Let It Happen"

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