Review: 'Lonerism' by Tame Impala

Tame Impala: Lonerism (Release date- 8th October 2012)

Few people can deny the charm of Tame Impala's 2010 début full length 'Innerspeaker'. Serving as an organic aural experience against today's over electronic, auto tuned pop, the album harked a return to guitars, drums and good vocal melody's. Having had great critical acclaim for their work, and honing the songs live throughout a constant stream of touring Tame Impala obviously had to offer up something progressive and even more extensive than their début for their second full length.

Straight after pressing play you get the feeling that 'Lonerism' is stomping familiar territory.The crunchy breakbeat-Ringo drums are still there, as are
the Lennon/Harrison-esque psychedelic vocal lines. It still heralds a return to the golden years of 1960's rock power groups, but isn't this where we started off with 'Innerspeaker'? Further into the album it's still evident that the group are sticking to some sort of formula, although there are now synths strapped on; which sounds as though they're there to take focus away from the guitar work that the band is so heavily based around.

That said, is the old adage 'If it ain't broken don't fix it' applicable. Well, yes and no. The album still shows that Tame Impala can write better songs  in their sleep than any number of current guitar pop/indie bands, but sometimes that doesn't feel enough. Tracks such as 'Mind Mischief', 'Apocalypse Dreams' and 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' cut through like the début album on first listen, often with funkier drums, simpler arrangements and less reliance of synthesizers, but will still have forumla of song arrangements differing little from 'Innerspeaker' tracks.

The title 'Lonerism' and some of the subject matter of 'Innerspeaker' point towards the bands obvious separation from what they see, hear and feel around them. Lyrics have often dealt with a type of isolation which may be self induced or not, but now it seems like the party in Kevin Parker's head is filling up with uninvited guests. Whether they are gatecrashers or not remains to be seen. Nonetheless there is definitely no feeling that the band have altered things to appeal to new fans, listeners or critics alike. But what they have done is create another burst of psychedelic rock for the 2000's. It's just a shame that it's so similar to their other explosion. While this is a good album, it won't overtake anyone's fondness for 'Innerspeaker'.