Tame Impala - Deadbeat

Kevin Parker sold his catalog, moved further out of Perth, and then made the least Tame Impala-sounding Tame Impala record yet. Deadbeat, released October 2025 on Columbia, takes its cues from Western Australian bush doof culture — the all-night desert raves Parker grew up on the edges of — and builds an album out of four-on-the-floor patterns rather than psych-rock ones.

The guitars have not disappeared so much as been demoted. "Loser" and "Dracula" run on kick drums and squelching bass. "Ethereal Connection" stretches past seven minutes without ever quite arriving anywhere, which on a dancefloor at four in the morning is the whole idea. "End Of Summer" closes the record the same way, and it is the best thing here.

Parker's voice is still doing what it has always done — sitting slightly behind the beat, drowned in reverb, singing about isolation while the arrangement insists on communality. That tension has powered five albums now. This is the one where the arrangement wins.

Double LP in a gatefold jacket with a 12-page lyrics and artwork booklet.