And this is what’s on my plate, so I just need to do this. And without fail, she would say, “Yeah, I mean, it sucks, but everyone can only deal with what’s given to them. Within hours of receiving news that would send many sprawling, she would call me and seem genuinely steady. Much to her credit, Emily was so much better at this than me. I was caught in a riptide and every time I thought I had re-stabilized from a tough update, another wave would pin me.
I think the hardest part of watching my girlfriend’s health degrade this year has been accepting radically new realities very quickly. You put your fingers in your ears and you close your eyes to shut them out, because you’ve always tried to control who you are, control the world that you’re in, but it comes to a point when it takes more energy to block it out than to allow it to wash through you. It’s about chaos – the whirlwinds of life that have always seemed too intense for you,” he explains. Parker put it this way in an interview with NME: As you can imagine, ‘Let It Happen’ is about allowing the world to come to you, not struggling so hard against natural progressions. At first blush, you might think it a gimmick, but after a few repetitions, the head starts nodding reflexively, trapped in a trance until he snaps his fingers and suddenly you’re careening out the other end of a wormhole into uncharted territory.īut what struck me most about the song was the honesty and vulnerability of the lyrics, and the somber tone of his voice. After a hauntingly beautiful first three minutes featuring an array of melodic synths, his signature Lennon-esque falsetto, and crisp, thoughtful drum fills, he pushes the looper button and doesn’t let go. Sonically, Let It Happen is a masterpiece, a synesthetic symphony. She consistently lifted me out of devastation and emotional ruin when it should’ve been the other way around. I was a bit concerned (my dad, though not an insufferable “rockist,” did raise me on a steady dose of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Santana.) The song started playing.
Kevin himself, deeply involved with actually making the album, would only say that he thought it was the most musically diverse release to date. All signs seemed to point towards a significant shift in Kevin’s sound – from guitar-heavy psych-rock washed in reverb to a more diverse set of songs pulling from R&B, disco, and a more Pop-oriented aesthetic. Anyone who identifies strongly with a certain artist could probably understand my anticipation – I had been scanning the web for months, reading every interview for hints about the new album, set to debut in July after a delay earlier in the year. My girlfriend, Emily, had been given a grim prognosis in December from an earlier bout of cancer and I was struggling to stay afloat – socially, at work, and in my own head.
I was already three months into an incredibly difficult year. I smiled dumbly, strapped on my headphones, clicked the link, and melted into my pillows. Scrolling through my News Feed, a friend’s status flashed past: “Everyone shut the fuck up there’s a new Tame Impala song.” Six shows in the last 12 months puts me somewhere between fanboy and belieber for Kevin Parker’s central project. I don’t remember how I started the day, but I finished it in my bedroom at 191 Graham, kinda drunk, kinda stoned.