On Feb. 14, 2020, Australian psychedelic pop-rock project, Tame Impala, released their 4th album, The Slow Rush. Fans have highly anticipated this release since their 2015 Grammy-nominated album, Currents.

Tame Impala is the brainchild of Australian multi-instrumentalist, Kevin Parker. While the group tours with a full band, all of the music is written, produced and recorded by Parker. Parker has been making music under Tame Impala for more than ten years and has released 4 albums under the name.

Personally, I’ve loved Tame Impala ever since I listened to Currents about a year ago. With The Slow Rush clocking in at 57 minutes and 12 tracks, Parker gave his fans plenty of material to enjoy.

The album starts off with the track “One More Year”. The track starts off slow but it slowly builds up to an awesome climax at the end. This is one of my favorite songs off the album and I highly recommend it.

The 3rd track, “Borderline”, is another track I found myself listening to a lot. The funky drums and synth-bass drive this song and make it very enjoyable. Not to mention the chorus, which in my opinion, makes “Borderline” one of the best songs of this album.

“Posthumous Forgiveness” is one of the longer tracks on the project, but is one my favorites nonetheless. In this track, Parker primarily addresses the estranged relationship he had with his father, who passed away 10 years ago. The song is split into two halves, with the first being a more ominous, bass heavy sound, while the second half has a much more upbeat and heavenly feel to it.

Another track I enjoyed a lot is “Breathe Deeper”. Parker’s lyrics surround stress and negative situations, and if you stay calm and “breathe a little deeper,” you will prevail. Whether it be the piano melody or the delightful vocals, this track is fun to listen to and one of the best songs on the album.

“On Track” is the 7th track on the album and my overall favorite song. Perseverance and following goals are the main themes in Parker’s lyrics. It starts off with just a single piano track and slowly builds as the song progresses. Within the final minute, all of components of the song come together to create a beautiful conclusion to the song.

The next track is called “Lost In Yesterday”. This song is driven by a groovy bassline and disco-inspired drums. Lyrically, this track deals with memories of the past and letting things go. This track is very fun to listen to and I highly recommend it.

As far as tracks that I didn’t like, there weren’t very many. Tracks like “Instant Destiny”, “Glimmer” and “Tomorrow’s Dust” weren’t necessarily bad, but I didn’t enjoy as much as the others. For instance, “Instant Destiny” had a very repetitive chorus and instrumentals, while “Glimmer” was very short and felt like a filler track. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this album. The tracks felt very cohesive and the main themes from track-to-track stayed within the same areas. Instrumentally, this was some of Parker’s best work and lyrically he impressed me a lot. Following up an album like Currents is no easy task, and I feel like Parker did very good at not disappointing fans while still changing up his sound a little. This release has me very hopeful for Parker’s future and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.