Thompson Hotels

As you might expect from a psych-rock power trio, Tame Impala are (mildly put) retro-minded. On the Aussies’ first release, Innerspeaker(Modular, 2010), frontman Kevin Parker double-tracks and delays nearly every note, sounding more like John Lennon than any singer since Julian. They hop from Creamy thunderboogie to British Invasion pop to Maximum R&B (usually in the same song), avoiding any stylistic or production technique after 1970. Several of these jams (especially the archly titled “Lucidity”) would fit seamlessly onto Nuggets II, so fine-tuned are both their songwriting and period detail. Whether Tame Impala has remained hopelessly anachronistic remains to be seen (or heard, as the case my be), when they play live in support of their latest LP,Lonerism. Either way, their debut — if slapped with a 1965 Decca or Reaction label — would still fetch thousands at the record fair. – Stephen Gossett, Flavorpill