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Currents by  Released17 July 2015Recorded2012–2015Studio's home studio, ,        Length51:12      chronology
(2014)Currents
(2015)
(2020) from Currents ""
Released: 11 March 2015 ""
Released: 7 April 2015 ""
Released: 15 June 2015 ""
Released: 29 November 2015

Currents is the third studio album by Australian musical project . It was released on 17 July 2015 by  and . In the United States it was released by  and  in the UK, while  released it in other regions. Like the project's previous two albums, Currents was written, recorded, performed, and produced by . For the first time, Parker  the music and recorded all instruments by himself; the album featured no other collaborators.

After the release of his previous album,  (2012), Parker began work on Currents, largely recording at his home studio in . He engrossed himself with writing and recording, and in keeping with his reputation as a musical auteur, laboured over the details of each song, ultimately causing the release date to be delayed by two months. In contrast to the  sound of the project's prior work, Currents marks a shift to more -oriented music, with more emphasis placed on synthesisers than guitars. Parker was inspired to seek a change out of desire to hear Tame Impala's music played in dance clubs and a more communal setting. Thematically, the record is about the process of personal transformation, which many critics interpreted to be the result of a romantic breakup. The album's cover art depicting  is a visualisation of these themes.

Currents was supported by the release of the singles "", "", "" and "". The album became the project's best charting release, debuting at number one in Australia, number three in the United Kingdom, and at number four in the United States. As of January 2023, Currents has sold over one million copies in the United States. Like its predecessors, the album received critical acclaim and appeared on various critics' lists of the best albums of 2015. At the , Currents was awarded  and , and it also received nominations for the  and the J Award for Australian Album of the Year. In December 2021, the album was listed at number 12 in 's list of the "200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time", and in 2020,  ranked Currents 382nd on its list of "".

Background Tame Impala performing in 2014.

Tame Impala emerged in the early 2010s as one of 's most prominent new acts. The group, fronted by musician Kevin Parker, released two albums that received adoration from music critics:  (2010) and  (2012). "" became an alt-rock radio hit, and was placed in several television series and commercials. Parker founded the band and is typically the sole operating member in the studio. In between Tame Impala releases, Parker founded the space disco band AAA Aardvark Getdown Services.

He began writing songs shortly after completing Lonerism, but was unable to specify when the album began to take shape: "There’s never really a start and never really an end either." The idea to compile his songs into an album came when he had between 10–20 songs ready. In May 2014, Parker spoke of his growing inclination toward recording the album in a triple J radio interview, explaining that: "I'm getting more and more sucked into the world of making an album. It's weird how it happens naturally, it's almost feels like a seasonal thing. I've started to think about tracklistings and all the things that come with an album."

The album's change in style has root in several events. Parker began to feel that even songs outside the  could possess its qualities; he made this assumption while under the influence of  and  and listening to the ' "". At some point, Parker broke up with his girlfriend, French singer-songwriter , and moved from Paris back to his hometown of Perth. According to Parker, "the only rule was to make an attempt to abandon the rules that I've set up in the past." This included toying with things he considered musically "cheesy" or taboo, including drum machines and various effects.

Critical reception Professional ratingsAggregate scoresSourceRating7.9/1084/100Review scoresSourceRatingA−8/109.4/109.3/109/10

Currents received acclaim from music critics. On , the album holds an average critic score of 84, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Ian Cohen of  gave the album a "Best New Music" designation, saying, "Nearly every proper song on Currents is a revelatory statement of Parker's range and increasing expertise as a producer, arranger, songwriter, and vocalist while maintaining the essence of Tame Impala". Cohen compared the record to others such as , , and , writing, "it's the result of a supernaturally talented obsessive trying to perfect music while redefining their relationship to album-oriented rock." 's Harley Brown called it "the purest – and most complex – distillation of everything that makes the band such a nearly physical pleasure to listen to". Brown added, "The real magic of Currents, though, is in how Parker so effectively (and genuinely, for the most part) manipulates the listener's emotions without necessarily revealing any himself." Alex Denney of  praised Parker for his musical transition, writing, "Fuzzed-out guitars simply aren't where Parker's head is at now, which strikes us as a fair trade-off from a producer pushing at the outer reaches of his talent."

 of  wrote "A lot of the album's power and strangeness comes from the way [the lyrics] cut against the lusciousness of the arrangements... and the loveliness of the melodies." He praised Parker for creating  by leaving the listener "simultaneously baffled and intrigued", rather than resorting to clichéd psychedelic music effects. Darren Levin of  said "the first thing that really strikes you about Currents is how hi-fi it actually is", and that after listening to the opening track, "you really do get the feeling you're watching one of rock's most restlessly creative minds at work". He concluded his review, "For someone who once sang 'Feels like we only go backwards', moving forward seems like Kevin Parker's only preoccupation right now." Levin was one of many reviewers to compare the album to 's 2013 record .  of  said that like their first two albums, "The core of Tame Impala is its aura of solitude". He called Currents "a tour de force for the songwriter and his gizmos. But it's also decidedly hermetic, nearly airless." Andy Gill of  said, "while copious application of phasing offers a link to Tame Impala's psychedelic roots, the absence of guitar wig-outs may disappoint some fans".

Accolades

Currents appeared on several critics' lists of the best albums of 2015.  named Currents the year's top album, saying that "Parker added dancefloor pop to their kaleidoscopic sound" while calling it "sonically advanced and filled with great songs".  ranked it as the year's fourth-best, calling it the group's "best because its soul actually lies in Motown". The magazine said the album finds Parker "coming to the epiphany that no amount of pitch- and time-shifting will screw with your perception of reality as much as a lyric that's as direct and true as 'They say people never change but that's bullshit / They do.'"  also ranked the record as fourth-best of the year.  ranked the album as the year's fifth-best, saying, "There's still a bit of Parker's elegant guitar here, but he's mostly rerouted his perfectionistic craftsmanship to synthesizer tones and drum programming."  ranked Currents at number eight on its list of the year's best albums, calling it a "near-perfect album" and "a superb progression from their last efforts, a study in internal consistency."  placed the album at number 13 on its list of the "50 Best Albums of 2015", writing that Parker's "musical rethink... is expansive, resulting in wide-screen adventures like 'Let It Happen'" and that the record is "full of weightless vocals and synthesized funk, for a set that's both blissed-out and mournful, like a set of diary entries from an astronaut floating off into oblivion". The album was also ranked fifth-best of the year by  and , 15th-best by , and 22nd-best by , while  named it the eighth-best pop/rock album of the year.

At the , Currents was awarded  and , and "Let It Happen" was nominated for . At the same event, Parker won for Engineer of the Year and Producer of the Year for his work on Currents, and Tame Impala were named . The album was nominated for  at the .

In 2020,  ranked Currents 382nd on its list of "".

Track listing

All tracks are written by 

Currents track listingNo.TitleLength1.""7:462."Nangs"1:473."The Moment"4:154."Yes I'm Changing"4:305.""5:196."Gossip"0:557.""3:388."Past Life"3:479.""1:4810.""4:0211."Reality in Motion"4:1212."Love/Paranoia"3:1013."New Person, Same Old Mistakes"6:03Total length:51:12 Japan bonus disc: No.TitleLength1."Endors Toi"5:572.""4:223."Sestri Levante"1:584."Mind Mischief"3:565."Desire Be, Desire Go"5:246.""8:147."Be Above It"7:298.""2:569."Apocalypse Dreams" (Parker, )7:56Total length:48:08