The Review - New Music week of July 13 from Tame Impala + new singles from Matt Good and City &

Tame Impala released their third album up for streaming a week ahead of it’s July 17 release date and to say the reviews for ‘Currents’ from the usual suspects were glowing, would be an understatement. Pitchfork awarded an elusive 9+ score, Consequence of Sound an A- and SPIN crowned it ‘Album of the Week’ with a 9 out of 10. Ratings much like awards can sometimes mean nothing to both music fans and probably in most cases less to the artists.

Simply put: Tame Impala have released a beautiful album. The opener, “Let It Happen” may be one of my favourite songs of 2015 so far. It sets the mood for the rest of ‘Currents’ perfectly. By track 4, ‘Yes I’m Changing’, lyrics are cutting through and you start to realize how personal this record is to front-man Kevin Parker. I’ve often been bothered with people who say, ‘it’s too late to change’, or ‘people never change’ and Parker takes that head on with the perfect lyric “People never change; that’s bullshit. They do. “. Why can’t we change? Why can’t we work on becoming better people? For me this is what this album is asking.

Instrumental interlude songs like ‘Nangs’ or ‘Gossip’ come and go so fast but the hooks and sounds are so fluid it all adds to the package of ‘Currents’.

I’ve spent two full listen to ‘Currents’ already this week and it begs more time to be spent with it. This isn’t your Tame Impala of 2012 with their radio take-over song ‘Elephants’ (from the very good album ‘Lonerism’) but instead it’s a Tame Impala putting together an album of sounds that sound like a labour of love.

Love or breaking up with someone you love is the overall theme here for me. Although a different feel and subject, I get the same feeling listening to Currents that I did with Nick Cave’s ‘Push The Sky Away’ record from a couple years ago. Both are filled with emotion that translates to the listener.

Even more simply put: VERY good album.

Checking out a couple new singles from Canadians that seemingly came out of nowhere this week. The songs couldn’t be more different.

First up, Matt Good comes back with the four minute, straight to rock radio song, ‘All You Sons And Daughters’. It’s the first single form Good’s forthcoming album ‘Chaotic Neutral’.

It’s a good but plain song. I’ve enjoyed listening to Matt progress over the past 8 years from the 2007 album ‘Hospital Music’. Songs like ‘Black Helicopter’ to ‘Zero Orchestra’ (a surprising but awesome song from Good) seemed to push Matt into different music spaces that he so perfectly delivered on his 1999 classic ‘Beautiful Midnight’. Unfortunately nothing about this song stands out to me… it comes, then it goes and if it wasn’t for Matt’s awesome vocals it would be complete wallpaper. Here’s hoping it’s just a one-off soft ball single.

Another Canadian released a new song, Dallas Green under the City & Colour name, released the 10 minute ‘Woman’.

As I eluded these songs couldn’t be more different. Dallas let’s ‘Woman’ weave its way through the lengthy 10 minutes, growing and meandering as it goes. Much like Good, Green is a fantastic vocalist and has crafted a recognizable engaging sound beyond his Alexisonfire launch pad. But the song doesn’t rely on Green’s distinct vocals but instead his singing only makes up half of the track with the rest filled with a plodding groove with some off mic Green screams. Good song and you have to like an artist who follows up his first album in almost 3 years with a 10-minute epic… Plus he must have been doing something right for Zane Lowe to give the song its debut on Beats 1.

This weekend is Victoria’s Rock The Shores and at this point if no surprise albums drop, will be my review focus for next week.