TAME IMPALA - CURRENTS

AUSTRALIAN psychedelic rockers Tame Impala have returned with their third long-player and it's a corker.

The band is very much the brainchild of Kevin Parker - and on this album, nothing's different; it was written, recorded and produced by the 29-year-old musician.

So what's changed from 2010's Innerspeaker and their 2012 follow-up Lonerism? Well, for a start, guitars take a back seat and synths come to the forefront. However, like the previous two albums, the music highlights how Parker is very much a master of his art.

This may be an album filled with tales of heartbreak, but the reverb-heavy tunes almost float on by with an ethereal quality. On Eventually he sings, 'I know I always said that I could never hurt you/ Well this is the very, very last time I'm ever going to', while you might associate the lyrics with being dumped and crying in your bedroom, the music instead whisks you off to a peaceful, summer-filled scene. Even when he changes tact they still maintain this quality, The Less I Know The Better is disco like in production yet still sounds airy.

Reality In Motion, and opener Let It Happen, are album highlights. We're sorry to whoever was on the receiving end of Kevin Parker's break ups - but if they received the news in the same way the listeners of this album did, they probably wouldn't have been able to stay mad at him for long.

9/10 — POLLY WEEKS