Tame Impala is Kevin Parker’s psych-pop one-man band. Beginning in Perth, Australia, as a home-recording project, Parker writes, produces, and records the albums himself. If this sounds like a lonely way to make music, it is—and it’s reflected in Parker’s recurring themes of isolation.
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His debut album, InnerSpeaker, was released in 2010, and with it Parker reimagined what it means to make a rock album. Most rock bands work through a few albums before attempting the “experimental” phase. But Parker began at this phase, crafting rock music with the approach of a DJ, sampling and programming his way through the recording.
On album two, Lonerism, Parker had a hit with “Elephant” that sounds like Black Sabbath fronted by John Lennon. It is obvious he builds records with a fair amount of obsession, but Parker’s talent doesn’t strip the feel or soul from the recordings like many over-cooked albums. He filters his drums and sometimes the entire mix, using the studio like a turntable. The colossal guitar riff on “Elephant” might obscure what a great bass player Parker is—a truism that wasn’t missed by the following album, Currents.
The guitars on Currents are moved to the background, and Parker’s bass playing drives the songs. Though his voice is still drenched in reverb, it’s pushed to the front of the mix with confident melodies and a gorgeous falsetto. “The Less I Know the Better” is Tame Impala’s most popular song, but it was almost someone else’s.
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Parker wrote the song for Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special album. But he had second thoughts and wanted to keep it for himself. He needed to work up the nerve to tell Ronson about his change of heart but kept putting it off. Finally, working in America with the “Uptown Funk” producer, Parker told Ronson his plans for the song. Ronson thought the same thing: this needs to be a Tame Impala song.
She Loves Me Not
“The Less I Know the Better” is about unrequited love. In the song, Parker plots against an ex-girlfriend by hooking up with a different girl named Heather. This move is in retaliation for his ex’s new beau, Trevor.
Someone said they left together
I ran out the door to get her
She was holding hands with Trevor
Not the greatest feeling ever
Said, “Pull yourself together
You should try your luck with Heather”
Then I heard they slept together
Oh, the less I know the better
The less I know the better
Parker pushes the track along in a funky groove echoing Daft Punk. The dance beat is offset by Parker alone, reduced to desperate pleading.
Oh, my love, can’t you see yourself by my side?
No surprise when you’re on his shoulder like every night
Oh, my love, can’t you see that you’re on my mind?
Don’t suppose you could convince your lover to change his mind?
A Tame Impala record is one of transport. “The Less I Know the Better” sounds like a hallucination, where Parker imagines there’s a chance of reconnecting with his ex. His voice fades into a lush soup of reverb and dreamy synths as he sings, Don’t make me wait forever.
A Broken Heart
His one-sided love story is portrayed in the music video by a high school basketball player whose heart is broken by a cheerleader. He’s found puking in a toilet thinking about her with another man, whom he’s imagined in his mind to be a gorilla. They meet head-on in the school’s hallway, where he confronts the gorilla and ultimately knocks him to the ground with a basketball.
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House
The song was born from Parker’s love of disco, though he’s described the song and the lyrics as “dorky.” He was obsessed with disco and finally gave in and included the song on Currents. But his compulsive impulses didn’t end there. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Parker said he became obsessive during the recording, singing the vocal more than a thousand times before he was satisfied.
Apparently, Parker isn’t the only one obsessed with a disco-funk song about unrequited love; “The Less I Know the Better” has surpassed 1 billion streams at the time of this writing.
The art-imitates-life cliché is familiar territory for musicians. Parker’s biggest song almost belonged to someone else, Mark Ronson. Mark, or “Trevor,” could have had this broken-hearted disco hit, but Parker did get it back in the end, though he still lost the girl.
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
