Currents is Tame Impala’s third album, where Kevin Parker fully abandoned guitar rock for shimmering synthesizers and drum machines, creating a solitary headphone masterpiece of psychedelic pop. It’s the sound of a breakup processed through tape saturation and a Juno-106 — sonically immaculate, emotionally human, and the kind of record that still rewards close listening.
There’s a moment six minutes into “Let It Happen” where the whole track glitches, stutters, then drops back into its groove as if the tape reel nearly snapped and thought better of it. That’s the entire album in microcosm: controlled chaos wrapped in immaculate pop craft. Kevin Parker made Currents alone in his home studio in Fremantle, and you can feel the solitude in every layer.
He’d spent years making guitar-heavy psych rock that sounded like it was recorded in a cave. Here, he traded the Fender for a Roland Juno-106 and an SP-1200 drum machine. The result is an album that doesn’t sound like anyone else — not even his earlier self. Parker produced, engineered, performed everything, and mixed most of it himself. Dave Fridmann mixed a few tracks, adding that extra sheen to “Eventually” and “The Less I Know the Better,” but the fingerprints are Parker’s.
The Headphone Universe
Currents is an album designed for headphones, not arenas. The stereo field is ridiculously wide — synths pan hard left while a bass line sits dead center, and a ghost of a vocal floats somewhere behind your right ear. Parker stacked dozens of tracks on a Tascam 388 half-inch tape machine, then bounced them down, losing a little fidelity each time to get that warm, slightly crushed sound.
Listen to “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” on a good pair of open-backs. The way the verses contract into a narrow, almost claustrophobic space before the chorus opens into a cathedral of reverb and fuzz — that’s not an accident. Parker spent months arranging those transitions, cutting and splicing tape, nudging events on the MIDI grid until they breathed. It’s why the album sounds both huge and intimate.
The drum sounds are worth a deep dive on their own. Parker sampled his own kit, then triggered those samples through the SP-1200, which gave them that grainy, slightly wobbly character. The snare on “Yes I’m Changing” has a papery crack that sits just behind the hi-hat — it shouldn’t work, but it anchors the song like a heartbeat.
Opinion time: “The Less I Know the Better” is the weakest track on the album, and I know I’m in the minority. Its bass line is too close to disco pastiche, and the chorus relies on a hook that Parker didn’t fully earn. But it’s the song that got Currents onto mainstream radio, so maybe I’m just being precious.
The rest of the record is airtight. “Eventually” has one of the most devastating key changes in modern pop — it shifts up a minor third for the final chorus, and Parker’s vocal cracks slightly as if he’s reaching for the note and running out of breath. That’s real humanness bleeding through the machines.
Currents isn’t a breakup album disguised as a party record. It’s the opposite: a party record that knows the morning will come. Parker sings about walking out, changing, admitting he made mistakes — all without the self-pity that usually plagues the genre. He sounds less like a victim and more like someone who’s already halfway out the door and trying to be decent about it.
A friend once told me that this album sounds like what crying on a dance floor feels like. That’s about right. It’s pop music that doesn’t apologize for being smart, psychedelic music that doesn’t insist on its weirdness, and a record that rewards the fourth and fifth listen more than the first.
Put it on, turn the lights down, and give it your ears. That’s all it asks.
Did Kevin Parker use any real instruments on Currents?
Yes, but sparingly. He played a Fender Jazzmaster on a few tracks and used a real drum kit that he sampled and triggered through the SP-1200. The rest is a mix of Juno-106, a MicroKorg, and various plug-ins.
Why does 'Let It Happen' have that glitchy drop-out?
Kevin Parker accidentally erased a section of the tape while editing. He liked the effect and kept it, adding a bit of silence before the beat crashes back in. It was a happy accident that became one of the album's signature moments.
Is Currents considered a concept album?
Not in the traditional sense, but it loosely follows a narrative arc of a relationship falling apart and the self-reflection that follows. Parker has said it's about 'the feeling of something coming to an end and the strength to finally let it go.'