8. The Slow Rush / Tame Impala

The D Man's biggest concert disappointment of 2020 was missing Tame Impala at Vivint Arena.  But time is a strange and shifting thing, as almost every song on The Slow Rush explores, and my feeling is we will cross paths down the road because the universe is on our side.

After the canyon-sized grooves on the instantly classic Currents, Kevin Parker moves toward dreamy coastlines on his fourth record.  The eminently likable Australian mostly ditches the guitars from Currents and homes in on euphoric textures with slithery basslines and spacey synthesizers.  The result is heady and smooth, an alchemy of disco, psych-rock, and hip-hop, hitting on decades of touchstones while sounding in and out of time.  If you think you hear echoes of Pink Floyd, Bee Gees, Duran Duran, Prince, or others, you probably do.

Per usual, Parker played every instrument and mixed every sound on The Slow Rush.  His studio wizardry over the past decade has created an aesthetic world that is wholly his own, an idiom that can only be Tame Impala.  It is what the best artists do.  While recently hitting the stratosphere by selling out arenas and headlining festivals is a triumph, it is this singular vision of trailblazing but highly-accessible pop music that has captured a global fanbase and this listener's repeated listens.