Lonerism by Tame Impala

Where the debut broke its sound into episodic chunks, Tame Impala now finds a singular sound in the cross-section of timeless pop and psychedelia. 

Lonerism is more fully realized than its predecessor, which may have resulted in some unpredictable obscurity being thrown by the wayside.

You feel small while listening to Lonerism, but in a way that makes you appreciate how man, machine, and Mother Nature can harmonize.

An album that’s likely to appeal to fifty quid blokes who’ll dig the retro influences, people to whom the term ‘chillwave’ actually means something, dance fans and everyone in between.

Sounds phase in and out, drums thunder, guitars chime with warm, valve amp bite, voices are multi-tracked into luscious harmonies, snatched sentences of speech burble in the background, loops repeat and vocals echo distantly, like they’re drifting in from a radio in another room.

This album is incredibly intriguing and was executed beautifully. 

Only two albums into their careers as Tame Impala, they've birthed a record on the precipice of their personal perfection.

This album is meditative, layered and confident, simultaneously cooler and more temperate than its predecessor.

Even if at times there's a feeling Parker's trying to cram too many ideas into one piece, it's a record that will undoubtedly be used as a benchmark for guitar music of the near future.

Lonerism takes you out of yourself, yet somehow deep within yourself, to lay a bedrock of familiar and warming sounds.

Arrangements explode or implode, meticulous vocal melodies rub up against perverse sonic sensibilities, genres are hopped, and fidelity is determined by the pure haste of getting ideas down.

While Lonerism does feel a bit more expansive, utilizing even more of mixer Dave Fridmann’s fancy effects pedals and studio wizardry, it uses those tools to delve even further inward.

With Lonerism, Tame Impala have doubled down on the kaleidoscopic refractions of their debut. The melodies are clearer, pushed up in the mix, given agency by their immediacy.

This is how to make a modern day psychedelic rock album. As an album it is wonderfully put together, if only lacking a true masterpiece, hence why I did not give it a perfect score. But that should not stop anyone from hearing what might have been the best album of 2012.

I'm glad that there is still some cool psychedelic rock out there. The fact that Kevin Parker's voice sounds like John Lennon and in some cases Julian Lennon is great too.

Too good. Seriously.

good guitars, nice harmonies but melodies are pretty weak, not a bad album but very overrated

It's good. Really good. But for me it doesn't have the "great song after great song" feel. It is great uplifting music, maybe not 100% me though