Kevin Parker is many things: perfectionist, visionary, and the man responsible for more headphone daydreams than your local college radio station. Now, under his Tame Impala banner, he’s leaning into a darker groove with Deadbeat, a new album (out October 17 via Columbia) that doubles as both a rave diary and a self-deprecating pep talk. And, naturally, he’s taking it on the road.
The Deadbeat U.S. tour kicks off October 31 with a two-night Brooklyn takeover at Barclays Center and wraps November 14 in Oakland. Tickets hit the general public September 12 at noon local time, but diehards can jump the presale queue by signing up at tameimpala.com.
The new material is already teasing out Parker’s shift: “Loser,” starring Stranger Things actor and Djo frontman Joe Keery in a Kristofski-directed video, and “End of Summer,” a seven-minute odyssey paired with visuals from artist Julian Klincewicz, point toward a body of work steeped in Australia’s bushdoof culture. Expect fewer lava-lamp swirls and more dirt-floor euphoria, as Parker reframes Tame Impala as a “future primitive rave act.”
That doesn’t mean he’s abandoned the songcraft. On Deadbeat, Parker toys with minimalism and grit while sneaking in some of his most infectiously direct hooks yet. It’s a study in duality: the sound of an artist leveling up technically while admitting—lyrically, at least—that he still feels like a “self-deprecating screw-up” with unfinished business.
The Deadbeat tour is shaping up to promise the kind of sonic baptism only Parker can deliver. Reality, as he’d put it, can wait another day—or two.
Photo Credit: Julian Klincewicz
