Lonerism

Les dieux du générateur me sourient après ma traversée difficile de cette semaine, débordant d’albums me faisant reconsidérer l’envie de continuer ce challenge. Merci Mr Impala, j’en avais vraiment de besoin

Love tame impala and this is personal my favourite album by him, probably due to my preference to rock music over anything else.

Album #52 (1001 challenge extended): "Lonerism" by Tame Impala (2012) "Lonerism" is the second studio album by Australian artist Tame Impala. Psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop and neo-psychedelia are the Wiki-listed genres. Tame Impala really is Kevin Parker who wrote, recorded, performed and produced all the songs. Jay Watson also contributed in the writing and played the drums, piano and keyboards. The songs on the album build on the psychedelic sound of the debut but favor synths and samples over guitars. Commercially, the album reached #14 in the UK and #34 in the US, critically, it was heavily acclaimed. The album opens with "Be Above It" and loud tinny drums and heavy breathing.. Wavering synths, rattles and Parker with high-pitched vocals as he has to be above it all. "Apocalypse Dreams" gets the pyschedelic dreamy going. Synth and piano keys carrying the melody. Pounding drums loud in the mix and that's most songs. Layered synths too, another common "thing" with these songs. The third and final single "Mind Mischief" features a phase guitar riff. Idiosyncratic drums, underlying synths and a guitar solo. Parker is confused in a relationship. A great deeper track is "Why Won't They Talk to Me?" A very catchy synth and piano melody. Laser sounds and layered synths. An ambient vibe. Parker with melancholic vocals. Piano and drum rolls begin "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards." Synths and pronounced bass. Chill, catchy and dreamy. Parker wrote "Elephant" before his debut album. A pounding beat, distorted guitar and a driving bass groove. A bluesy, psychedelic tone. Also, Beatle-esque drum rolls. Plus, an extended synth jam in the bridge. The music on this album is a combination of the psychedelic and dreamy ambient. Pop songs without the typical pop song structure of verses and choruses. Glimmering, layered synths setting the mood. There are melodies but they can be buried in the dreamy atmosphere or easily identifiable. The music matches the lyrics of isolation and distant/unrequited relationships. I liked this album a lot when it came out and it sounded great today. A solid recommendation for the psychedelic and ambient crowd. 4.5 out of 5

Prefer this to Currents, many great tunes

Did you know this artist is only one guy!?!?!?!?!

He experimented more in his early career. This felt fun, new, like we were along for the ride with him. Thoughtful and genuine. Never losing sight of the vision, but also having a blast the whole way there. Great pick. I miss the old Tame Impala. 4/5

Interesting, modern psychedelic music… I know the name but not a lot of much from Tame Impala. Some songs were hitting the level of 5 for me (Elephant sticks out), some not as much but I did enjoy the listen.

Lonerism is the second album by Australian psychedelic pop/rock artist Tame Impala. The album is highly rated by critics, so maybe my option about Tame Impala is not a popular one. I think the great strength of this artist is the unique sound. The biggest weakness is that literally every song sounds exactly the same. This combined with the genre (resulting in slow songs , lots of reverb and a very laid back vibe) makes one song ok, but a complete album something between boring to unbearable to listen to. I hear a certain quality, but this is also certainly not my thing.

Tame Impala sits in my pile of artists they people foam at the mouth for that make me go meh. But if it's your thing that's cool

Siempre me ha costado Tame Impala. A couple of songs here and there are ok, but the rest of the album is always boring to me.

More like Lame Impala. I already made that joke before, but Tame Impala already made this album before so it's fine.

Such a great album. Great blend of psychedelia and modern music. Not as great as Currents, but definitely a worthwhile listen. 4.5/5

"Beyond this limit, dogs, even held on a leash, are not admitted". This is how you can translate the sign at the gate of the Jardin du Luxembourg park at the bottom of the now famous photo gracing the cover of Tame Impala's second album. Even with the cult impact of his debut *Innerspeaker* in his mind, Kevin Parker probably still felt like an underdog indeed when his sophomore LP was released -- with or without a leash. The man dreamt of recording a whole pop album with fellow Aussie singer Kylie Minogue around that time, and yet he still had too much of an "indie" reputation to be taken seriously enough by the mainstream music industry... Of course, now we all know Parker would eventually be allowed to enter the pop stars' private park. During the couple of years preceding the release of *Lonerism* however, he was still recording his psychedelic pop songs in his home studio. The drum sound and Parker's relatively loose and amateurish performance on that one instrument nicely reveal the very DIY origins of this album by the way. And yet, the pop instincts were too strong, the technical know-how was too savvy, the arrangements and instrumentations were too well thought-out, and the vocal takes were too sweet. So when *Lonerism* came out, its own impact sure went beyond Tame Impala's initial psych-rock target audience, and therefore started to reach the normies at last. Parker could now enter the park, even if deep inside, he still considered himself an outcast -- in his love life, as some of his lyrics suggest, but probably also as an artist whose wild ambitions are not fully realized yet. Those sorts of underdog connotations, and the "in-betweeness" that goes with them, are ironically what makes *Lonerism* the best and the most heartfelt album in Tame Impala's discography. Sure the three or four peaks found in the (breakout) LP that would follow, *Currents*, are probably higher than anything in it. But that next LP is also pestered by a couple of duds, mind you. Which is why *Lonerism* is still to this day the most cohesive full-length statement ever released by Parker. First, there's no dud to be found in its tracklist. Even the near-meandering "Keep On Lying" has enough moments that slap, and the very short interlude "She Just Won't Believe Me", along with the voluntarily experimental and musique concrète closer / bonus track "Sun's Coming Up" -- that I personally find wonderful anyway -- can't count. And secondly, the tones, riffs and melodies harnessed for the record are vast and sprawling enough to make it a timeless piece of art. The displaying of all those various elements checks all the necessary boxes -- there are still enough electric guitars to make the music rock ; there are still enough trippy experimental sounds to make the bong-hitting guys and gals psych out; and there are already enough melancholic pop tunes to make the tender-hearted bougie listeners shed a tear. Not merely the "best of both worlds" here. The *best of ALL worlds*. There are actually so many peaks in *Lonerism*, the whole thing looks like a rugged plateau. "Be Above It" is a striking, obsessive opener. "Endors-toi" retrospectively feels like a rough draft for "Let It Happen", but it also has its own thing going on. "Apocalypse Dreams" and "Nothing That Has Happened So Far..." are epic psychedelic pieces. The succession of "Mind Mischief", "Music To Walk Home By", "Why Won't They Talk To Me?" and "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" is providing a timeless string of absolute bangers. As for the lively boogie and bonkers modal changes found in "Elephant", graced by the coolest organ / guitar soloing EVER, they're simply the stuff psychedelic wet dreams are made of -- hereby providing my all-time favorite Kevin Parker song. A couple of albums later, just as his dreams of rubbing shoulders with pop stars came true, Kevin Parker would lose his way on a purely artistic viewpoint. But why should he care? He was rich, highly respected by the industry, and incredibly famous. Maybe he had never felt more lonely than when he was finally "living the dream", who knows? Or maybe he felt instantly at home in that celebrity park. Those things shouldn't matter to us picky listeners anyway... To conclude, a quick opinion of mine about that later part of Kevin Parker's career... I find it particularly ironic that Tame Impala's latest LP *Deadbeat* has been so mercilessly panned by the critics given that the first half of this (admittedly underwhelming) record is still ten times better than anything found in the absolutely bland and dreadful *The Slow Rush* -- which had NOT been panned by the same critics before. By this point, I have a sneaking suspicion that us plebes have a better view of what's going on in the Jardin du Luxembourg compared to the "professional reviewers". But I guess all of this is a story for another time, kiddies... 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 4.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 122 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 137 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 304 ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

I love Tame Impala. With their pop-approach, they make psychedelic music very approachable. Very calming albul

A modern psych rock classic here. Catchy, dreamy, full of so much reverb that I feel like I'm buzzing. Kevin really hit it out of the park here.

Rating: 10/10

I think I like some of his later records more. But this is good. It somehow feels less urgent than his later work.

Great fun, without too much substance.

Enjoyed this a lot less than the other Tame Impala album on the user list. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop, neo-psychedelia. Ni fu ni fa.

Kind of digging the vibe here.

As much as I try I just can’t get into Tame Impala.

Tame Impala does their thing. I like that thing, but they also don't really do much outside of that thing,

3/4

Definitely a pop feel. Commercially made?

Not bad

I always find this artist enjoyable, it's ball well-constructed and well-performed. This one is, well, pretty derivative of Beatles, isn't it? Am I crazy? I'm not complaining...

Damn, thought this would've been here already. 3-4 Never really liked it that much.

I couldn’t find my in fit this album. It was pleasant enough but it was just background music that I didn’t hate.

Not nearly as strong as the other Tame Impala record that I've listened to on this generator (Currents). Favourite songs: Elephant, Mind Mischief, Keep On Lying Least favourite songs: Be Above It, She Just Won't Believe Me, Sun's Coming Up 2/5

There's definitely more than a dollop of psychedelic-era Beatles in this, isn't there? I think I'd quite like it for a track or two, but the main takeaway I got from this is that the production of this is just so incredibly bright. Absolutely fatiguing, and left me wanting some respite from its cymbal-heavy, snare-driven beats.

lmao this bullshit? go back to Reddit