Deadbeat
A polarizing pivot into West Australian rave culture. Kevin Parker wraps his signature melancholic falsetto in driving four-on-the-floor house beats and neon synths.
A polarizing pivot into West Australian rave culture. Kevin Parker wraps his signature melancholic falsetto in driving four-on-the-floor house beats and neon synths.
Club detour
Thick, humid air carries the thud of a distant bush rave, bleeding into neon-lit house grooves. Sweaty four-on-the-floor beats pull you onto a dusty dancefloor while dizzying, sun-warped synths spin overhead. Underneath the relentless, driving bass, a lonely falsetto floats like smoke, capturing the bittersweet ache of a party's final hours.
The record leans heavily into a bittersweet quality, where the euphoric rush of the dancefloor constantly wars with a creeping, late-night panic.
Critics warmly received the album's shift toward mesmerizing dance rhythms, praising the compelling contrast between its lush, club-ready production and introspective themes of social anxiety. However, some reviewers felt the record lacked a sense of cohesion, leaving it feeling somewhat unfinished despite its highly engaging atmosphere.
“Kevin Parker’s latest record begins with what might be the best opening track of the year, as he makes mountains out of social awkwardness molehills”Read review
“The album finds Kevin Parker still selling himself as a something of an underachiever”Read review
“On Deadbeat, his first album in five years, Kevin Parker mixes frazzled moods and plush beats”Read review
“Kevin Parker’s latest offering is patchy and overly synthetic, failing to hit the heights of his generation defining previous albums”Read review
“Kevin Parker takes a left turn onto the dancefloor and sounds quite lost. What could’ve been an interesting experiment is instead full of hollow songs and half-measures”Read review
“The psych hermit-turned-pop hitmaker turns to dance music – and openly embraces his introversion and insecurities”Read review
“Deadbeat is Tame Impala’s electronic dance and house record, and it wants listeners to consider the multi-talented Grammy winner a loser”
“Australian indie’s breakout star takes a dancefloor diversion, but amid the four-four fun are fears about fame’s effect on his domestic life”Read review
“Kevin Parker’s long-awaited fifth studio LP fulfills the promise of poppier, techno-focused sounds, but rarely fuses the two, leaving you wishing for fewer hooks and more trance”Read review
“Though he is still the mastermind behind Tame Impala, the Aussie composer is starting to sound more and more like one person in a studio — a fact that used to blow people’s minds”Read review
“Deadbeat sounds and feels like an unfinished project, confident, even novel compared to Tame Impala’s earliest EPs, but still somehow incomplete”Read review
“If the thought of an outback rave might bring to mind a frantic, lawless bacchanal, the vibes on Deadbeat offer a more mesmerizing experience, one that dance escapists can easily get lost in”Read review
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