Tame Impala – End Of Summer

Low end comes through so balanced on vinyl end of August each year

With tracks like Glimmer I was expecting more from the electronic stuff, but this lacks the progressive creativity of his previous records. The Slow Rush gets a lot of criticism but the songwriting is still good, each track is very thoughtful. This just feels different and I’m having trouble explaining it. The reversed kicks on the B-side are nice but they never go really go anywhere, the drop sounds OK but he doesn’t do anything to particular make it special other than drop an octave for the rest of the song, pretty much. The timing feels off so the drops don’t really pay off as well. Lyrically it feels dull, lacking the psychedelic imagery, yearning and storytelling that I normally love him so much for (though I will admit that he still sounds lovely on that “love doesn’t cast a shadow” bridge, even if the lyrics still feel disjointed and kind of meaningless there. But I’m a New Order fan, so I shouldn’t really be judging meaningless lyrics, should I?)

One of the issues seems to be a lack of solid identity, or solid intersection of those identities. The classic 12” imagery is very prevalent but this doesn’t really sound like classic house/techno at all aside from the drums—it sounds like a combination of that clean, mainstream hyperpop sound (the kind with the lack of bass-boosting or that aggressive synth-work) and 2010s tropical house and big room EDM (like similar to Major Lazer sort of.) It’s not that I’m against these elements being mixed together but they don’t really gel too well in this context imo.

Not a psych-rock purist, and I love both house and techno but there is such a lushness and character to both Slow Rush and Currents that I’m not really getting here. It feels sort of like he’s found this safe, sort of “Diet Impala” style with those squelchy Juno layers he’s been putting on every track lately, and so the tracks have lacked the individual layers they had before. I liked No More Lies a lot though

Own a lot of his records and this one is a new instant favorite. Drums sound amazing. The hidden b side song is incredible. Feel lucky to have this one.

What is the b side track? Words words words words

can we please stop artificially inflating the prices of limited vinyl as soon as they go out of stock thanks 👍

Does anyone know how many of these were pressed? at least 10 words...