Release Date: 17 October 2025
Song Count: 12
Duration: 56 minutes, 5 seconds
Rating: 5.5/10
Description:
A very anticipated album by fans worldwide and one I've been meaning to listen to since I was made aware of its release, Deadbeat is the fifth album of the Perth-based widely successful project Tame Impala, made by multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. Tame Impala has gone through many musical evolutions over the course of its existence, spanning from progressive rock in its early days to a more psychedelic and electronic style of music throughout, and this new album fully marks the endstages of this transformation, fully leaning into the act's new musical identity.
Deadbeat, whilst fully embracing its techno-rave type sound, simultaneously takes on a more down-low and tristant tone in terms of lyricism and certain musical elements, talks of past mistakes, heartbreak and falling back into bad habits in spite of knowing better delivered by reverbing voices sounding on top of low-energy beats, electronic synths and keys and simplistic, repeating melodic lines. The introductions to a majority of the tracks are incredibly efficient at hooking the listener in and setting the stage for the real meat and potatoes of the songs to play out and make for what could be a legendary lineup of songs.
Unfortunately, what these starts to the tracks actually lead up to are 3-4 minutes of the same lines that started off the songs continually repeating themselves, the initial energy dying off almost entirely after their first minute, even when new instruments get introduced or the status quo gets interrupted with e.g. the percussion taking a halt. It's not helped by the fact that most of the beats and rhythms present within the songs, while catchy at times, aren't usually dynamic enough to sustain themselves in their entirety, and the overall pattern is that in the grand scheme of things, there is a certain lack of sonical depth to the songs that is noticeable enough to tamper with the enjoyment.
This kind of music shines brightest during parts where a balance is struck between the implementation of new sounds and changes in the moving parts of the tracks and sufficient repetition to have the memorable moments linger on the ears and mind of the listener, which this album achieves on a select few amount of moments, such as songs like "My Old Ways", "Obsolete" and to an extent "Not My World" and "Piece Of Heaven", but frequently fails to strike, either with providing with too little or with a sufficient amount, but with excessively disjointed elements that struggle with coming together in a coherent manner.
While expressing outright disappointment with albums I tend to try and avoid with these reviews by always going in with as open of a mind as possible, it is undeniable that a lot more could have been done with the many ideas that Deadbeat has and clearly tries to go for. Of course, not all hope is lost for Parker's golden project in terms of musical quality and achieving greatness once more, but this attempt, while a valiant effort, had quite a way to go to reach up there as one of his best works. I may still revisit "My Old Ways" from time to time in the future, though, and I most certainly respect the few times Tame Impala does take risks within Deadbeat that end up paying off. Here's to more of those glimpses of great EDM music in the future!