What an unusual proposition Tame Impala are. Kevin Parker, a genial Australian with a laissez-faire look that might be described as surfer rave Jesus, started out in the late 2000s as a one-man psychedelic rock band who pretended he didn’t play every note himself because he worried he wasn’t interesting enough to be a solo artist. Now he’s the platinum-selling producer called on to make a song with Diana Ross for the soundtrack to Despicable Me 3 and remix Elvis for Baz Luhrmann. His five-man live show, meanwhile, has become enough of a draw to headline Coachella in 2019 when Justin Timberlake dropped out, where they staged such an expensively brain-melting production that Parker actually lost money.
That show was intended to promote his fourth album, The Slow Rush, but it wasn’t ready yet (perfectionism is a beast). As soon as it finally came out, in February 2020, the pandemic put Tame Impala on ice. It was all too ironic for a record about how time always seems to pass too quickly or too slowly. This return to London, then, has been a long time coming. “I can’t tell you how fucking long I’ve waited for this,” he says with feeling. “I thought this day would never come.”
