Tame Impala Album Review

ALBUM ALBUM RE ALBUM

ALBUM TAME IMPALA THE SLOW RUSH

REVIEW REVIEW

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

Tame Impala’s new album, The Slow Rush has finally been released and I’ve been asking myself if it’s fair to expect a band to stay consistent with my taste in music over time. The Slow Rush came out on February 14, 2020 and on the spectrum of the band’s discography the new album sounds most similar to Currents, the band’s last album. By: Tyler Drag Online Editor

The new album’s similar sound to Currents isn’t a surprise, but I was hoping for a bigger difference or more of a progression from Currents to The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker, the architect behind Tame Impala, has managed to release original sounding albums- but The Slow Rush is the first one to sound this similar to another album in the band’s discography. Innerspeaker, Lonerism, Live Versions, and Currents all have their own individual sound while still retaining the Tame Impala aesthetic. The Slow Rush still has its own aesthetic when compared to the discography, but it’s almost just an extension of Currents with different tones and effects. So, if you liked Currents, you’re in luck. However, even for someone who likes the band’s older material, The Slow Rush does come with a few gems in it like: “Breathe Deeper,” “Instant Destiny,” “ Tomorrow’s Dust,” “Lost in Yesterday” and “Is It True,” but as a whole the album is a bit repetitive and bland.

Parker utilizes his ability to make catchy beats accompanied by attractive synths chords, which doesn’t sound bad, but most of this album isn’t worth listening to multiple times compared to other content that’s out there (The Strokes dropped a few singles and have a new album on the way, Khruangbin released a new album, and Thundercat keeps releasing singles just to give a few examples). Obviously, this is all subjective, but Tame Impala was best at Lonerism. Each instrument used to have an entire song to play, but now there’s a lot of moments where it’s just Parker singing, drums, and synth/effects. It’s a bit repetitive, but maybe it’s too soon and The Slow Rush will age better with time.

ENTERTAINMENT usfencounter.stfrancis.edu When Currents first came out, I hated it because it wasn’t as good as Lonerism, but now I listen to most of the songs from that album just as much as Lonerism. Maybe The Slow Rush will age better, but at the moment I think it’s just some weak hypnotic synth pop music from one of my favorite bands. Maybe it’s not fair to expect Tame Impala to stay consistent with my taste in music over time, but I wouldn’t say that the band has sold out or lost their talent either. This album was a little disappointing, but after releasing so much good music I am more than willing to cut them some slack.

Edition EXPRESS The

THE LACK OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS

By: Ian Bond Staff Writer

In case you, dear reader, have been living under a rock, the world is becoming increasingly digital. But if you are not Patrick Star, then you are probably familiar with Netflix or Hulu. When was the last time you even watched a movie or series on a physical DVD disk? You probably can’t even remember because almost every device you own supports Netflix or Hulu. According to the New York Times, Netflix and Hulu aren’t necessarily an eitheror proposition because many users pay for both platforms. While Netflix is the leading streaming service, Hulu offers more shows and channels, especially live TV. But at the end of the day, you, get to decide which platform is best for your needs. Streaming platforms are not the only media that has abandoned physical objects. The computer that you use to watch Netflix or Hulu might not have a disk drive. Some computer cases do not even allow for them so owners must purchase an external disk drive should the need ever arise. Still, in other computers, it will only be used once in a blue moon. USF student, David Paul takes this a step further. He still has a disk drive, but he, “unplugged it [from the motherboard] so I could add an SSD [solid state drive].” Perhaps if you are like my parents and you have a sizable CD collection, you may still want to opt for the disk drive. But even though physical album sales make up a higher percentage of US music consumption than digital sales according to Statista, music streaming dominates all. In fact, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Echo and other music platforms made up 78% of US music consumption in 2019, up from 62% in 2017. This trend also continues in the world of gaming wherein the span of 11 years, physical games went from 80% of the market to 17%, according to Statista. This makes sense for PC gamers for reasons mentioned earlier and because the digital game store Steam has become such a household name in the gaming community. This trend is also appealing to those in the console gaming community as well but not everyone has jumped on the digital bandwagon. For example, USF student Russel Egan still prefers having the physical copy for a nostalgic purpose. Egan states, “There is something about having a collection of games like back on the PS2 [PlayStation 2] when you couldn’t download games.” The lack of physical objects does not just impact the entertainment world too. Audible is another example where users can download books digitally. It is great for someone that does not have time to go out and purchase a physical copy. Additionally, you may want to read along with your audiobook instead of actually reading it. Whether you read the physical book or the e-book, physical copies are still outselling e-books according to www.cnbc.com. Additionally, younger generations are the ones reading physical books. Britons under 44 make up

63% of physical book purchases in the UK while 75% of Americans between 18 and 29 at least claimed to have read a physical book when polled in 2017, per CNBC.

Books are not the only paper products digitized, as any historian and archivist can attest to. Numerous archives have been digitized of their collections and made available online. The German Federal Archives, also known as the Bundesarchiv, has digitized countless documents, images, sounds, films and maps, albeit much of it is inextensible to non-Germans and the website is difficult to navigate. To gain an idea of how many primary sources have been digitized, in 2008 the Bundesarchiv uploaded 80,000 files to Wikimedia Commons in what the online repository believes to be its largest donation to date.

This last example also demonstrates that archives are not the only place to find primary sources online. Fordham University’s Online Sourcebook has a plethora of sources spanning thousands of years of history , making it among the first history students learn about. But just as the primary sources are countless, so too are the places storing them, admittedly to a lesser degree. When I researched the Communist Party of Germany for my senior thesis, I found a source that used digitized copies of the party’s newspaper. Unfortunately, the font was too difficult to read for someone that only knows a little German so they were not that useful.

"In fact, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Echo and other music platforms made up 78% of US music consumption in 2019, up from 62% in 2017."

More importantly, the website with those newspapers came from a database, another great example of the lack of physical objects. I am also willing to bet that most college students will have to use a database to write a paper at some point in their college careers. Even though they are not the easiest to navigate, a database such as JSTOR allows you to search through its collection of academic journals that you would otherwise have to search through by hand.

The lack of physical objects has a profound impact on day to day life whether recreational or professional. Even though so much around us has become digital, holdouts still exist and might possibly grow in tandem with a digital counterpart rather than die out like in other areas. Feel free to share how you refuse or embrace the lack of physical objects in your own lives.