11 Tame Impala Lyrics That Will Help You Embrace Your Inner Loner
Australian psych-rock band Tame Impala will drop their third album, Currents, this Friday (July 17), and that's extremely exciting news. Why, you ask? For one thing, it's been almost three years since we last heard anything new from the group, as 2012's Lonerism dropped before Obama had even been re-elected yet -- think about THAT.
For another, the band has also attracted some serious attention since then. Last year, Kendrick Lamar snagged a lilting Tame Impala vocal sample for "Backwards," a fierce track recorded for the "Divergent" soundtrack. And at the start of 2015, band leader and songwriter Kevin Parker appeared on two tracks on Mark Ronson's Uptown Special, though neither of them was "Uptown Funk" (sadly).
And then there was the whole "hanging out with Miley Cyrus and The Flaming Lips" thing.
So Tame Impala now has famous friends and tons of fans, but Parker's music still conveys one particular message above any others: It's cool to be you, even if that you is someone who's a total loner. Here are 11 lyrics that prove that.
"And I boast that it is meant to be / But in all honesty I don't have a hope in hell"
This refrain from the first track on 2010 debut album Innerspeaker was how Tame Impala introduced themselves to us. Fitting.
"Company's okay, solitude is bliss / There's a party in my head and no one is invited"
Ah yes, a song called "Solitude Is Bliss" from a band who later dropped a record called Lonerism. What else would we expect?
"And I know that I gotta be above it now / And I know that I can't let them bring me down / And I gotta bide my time as a face in the crowd"
In these three lines, Parker pretty much sums up the current younger generation's collective social anxiety. And it feels good to be validated.
"Everything is changing / And there's nothing I can do / My world is turning pages / While I am just sitting here"
The epicenter of all-too-familiar feels.
"Then it all just came out / Guess I'll hold it in next time"
This song is called "Mind Mischief" because it first makes you be hella real with yourself, then kinda laughs about it. Like a jerk.
"Can almost hear the fun that I should be having / Instead of all this dreaming"
"Music To Walk Home By" -- that's why they make headphones, my friend. To keep it hidden.
"But I don't even care about it anyway / I wouldn't listen to a word any of them say / They just talk about themselves all day"
Maybe a defensive reflex from "Why Won't They Talk To Me?" but still totally valid.
"There is something you should know / But hell if I'd ever let it show"
Oooohh, yes. Again, too real.
"I have just been waiting for the perfect time to tell you I don't know"
That line, by the way, is rhymed with the title of the song, "Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control." Take that how you will.
"All this running around / Trying to cover my shadow / An ocean growing inside / All the others seem shallow"
Stark admissions like this are buried in layers of psychedelic noise during the eight-minute "Let It Happen" for a reason.
"Another version of myself I think I found at last / And I can't always hide away"
This new tune is called "Yes I'm Changing" -- could it be the start of something new for Tame Impala?
Keep on rockin', dudes! (Inside your room and inside your own head, most likely).