ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2010 No. 18 – TAME IMPALA – Innerspeak

In the second half of the 1960s the Psychedelic bug was born, all too briefly infiltrating almost all known music; everyone from The Beatles to the Dave Clark Five and across the water such diverse acts as The Byrds and Lee Hazlewood all caught the bug. It even spawned numerous bug monsters of its own exemplified by bands like Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. Soon enough though the dominance ended and the bug was forced underground in the early 70s, missing presumed dead. But a saviour called ‘Nuggets’ sent out the signal that the bug still had silent friends in the music world and many remembered its reign with fondness. So it came to pass that slowly, in the 80s and 90s, the Psychedelic bug began to re-appear. First with pure pastiche efforts by musical thespian type bands like Dukes Of The Stratosphere; then more stridently as renegades like Inspiral Carpets and The Charlatans shocked the bug back into major active service by adding an all new groove element to the mix. Since then the bug has felt more assured in regularly touching surface but world domination is no longer an agenda, its learnt the art of selectiveness; the bug isn’t going anywhere near a Matt Cardle record! Nowadays the bug just wants to help inspire great music making and thankfully in 2010, it found the perfect compatriots in Tame Impala.

Tame Impala had already promised much with their self titled 2008 EP and its brilliant, throbbing, ‘Half Glass Full Of Wine’. ‘Innerspeak’ delivers on that potential big time though and is easily the psychedelic release of the year (pushed to the wire by The Soundcarriers ‘Celeste’). The Klaxons tried to channel the same psych-vibe this year but theirs was a painting-by-numbers effort by comparison; over-thought and lacking in conviction. Tame Impala have been fine-tuning their craft underground for years and now they’re in full view you are steamrollered by the power of a band that cuts it with consummate ease. They’ve got the dreamy echo; the acid guitar passages; the open ended groove leading the music down kaleidoscopic tunnels of endless possibility but above all they’ve got the tunes. There’s something that all the best psychedelic bands can pull off; three minutes of pure pop bliss. Tame Impala are up to the task, just listen to ‘I Don’t Really Mind’ to find how and check out a preview of the whole glorious wig-out over at http://www.emusic.com/