Deadbeat

By Tame Impala | Columbia Records

Well, that's Halloween over for another year. The costumes are back in the box, the fake blood has been cleared up, and the hangovers have passed. But there's one distinct part of this year's scary season that won't leave our memory for a while. Tame Impala's newest album release, Deadbeat.

The first album he's dropped in five years, Deadbeat, debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, gaining predominantly positive feedback from fans across the world. His noticeable shift to EDM and dance genres represents a bold move, and shows Kevin Parker (yes, Tame Impala is one man, has nobody ever told you?) isn't afraid of experimenting and keeping us guessing, and ultimately provided us with an album that would have been played at parties up and down all seven continents. Apart from Antarctica, I doubt penguins are aware of EDM.

Listening to this album from start to finish, I couldn't help but notice that Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' resonated behind a large number of the songs. The entirety of 'Deadbeat' has an inherently... spooky feeling behind it, and I don't even have to mention the classic status that 'Dracula' will have come ten years. Although I will say this, if there's one song to listen to from the entire album, 'Dracula' is undoubtedly the one. Assuming the vast numbers of TikTok videos using it as their audio haven't hit your fyp.

Perhaps the best thing about this album is the continuous switch-ups that occur within it. One moment you're listening to 'Obsolete', a familiar throwback to the more indie sounds that made us all fall in love with Kevin circa 2015, the next you're transported to a Berlin nightclub, entranced by the high-energy, rhythmic thumps of 'Ethereal Connection'. Mixing genres so ruthlessly within a single album is always a bold move, especially when moving away from the traditional sounds that fans know you for. But Tame Impala seems to have pulled this off seamlessly, creating yet another album destined for cult classic status.

The album was written to highlight feelings of disconnectedness, being trapped in a cyclical nightmare of negativity, and overall to encapsulate the feeling of being deadbeat. It tackles difficult conversations so many of us have with ourselves daily, and highlights the difficulties of keeping up with such a fast-paced world filled with such a constant stream of negativity. In terms of opinions, 'Deadbeat' isn't my favourite work of Tame Impala. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it; however, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys EDM, dance, or indie music. Will I be listening to it continuously? No. Will I take the message behind the album and implement it into daily life? Without a doubt.