Tame Impala: Currents (2LP, import) [MODULAR/INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

Kevin Parker wrote, played, produced and mixed every note of Currents himself, and it landed a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. "The Less I Know the Better" and "Let It Happen" live here, and Rihanna liked "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" so much she covered it.

This edition

• 2LP set, 13 tracks over four sides
• Import pressing

About the album

Australian one-man band and psych-rock auteur Kevin Parker decided he wanted to hear Tame Impala's music busted out in da club whilst heading into Album No. 3, so he holed up alone with his gear (and a generous supply of booze and weed) in his home studio in Fremantle for months, trying to nail a more danceable new direction down perfectly.

It worked out in the end. Currents, which pulls liberally from disco, synth-pop and '90s R&B yet maintains a tether to the "classic" Tame Impala sound, was an instant hit with both critics and fans when it arrived in the summer of 2015 and became the project's fastest-selling album out of the box. And, in a move that would introduce a whole new audience to Tame Impala, super-fan Rihanna did a faithful, note-for-note cover of Currents' dreamy closing number, "New Person, Same Old Mistakes," under the name "Same Ol' Mistakes" on her album Anti the following year.

Also at Kops: more Tame Impala on vinyl · browse Psychedelic & Garage

Tracklist

Listen

On Modular / Interscope (cat# B002333701), first out in 2015.