Artist: Tame Impala
Album: The Slow Rush
Song: “Breathe Deeper”
Label: Modular Recordings Pty
[0:01] The funk-bass refrain that opens the song has such a pleasant, round-rubbery chonk to it. It almost sounds like a taut rubber band being flicked and amplified.
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[0:17] After every line, singer Kevin Parker tacks on this this plucky, upbeat little “I can!” Like a tagline on a tie-dyed, motivational blacklight poster. A one-man band creating his own background-singer doo-wop garnish. It’s both catchy and low-key adorable.
Also, I love the vocal effect on his voice. It has this silvery, swishy reverb that occasionally echoes back, call and response.
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[3:02] The elongated synth notes that enter here sound AMAZING. Like the burbling fart of an electronic didgeridoo. Parker might as well have sampled it directly off the opening bars of Warren G’s “Regulate”.
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[4:56] OK, the song’s over!
Whew, what a great song. I loved it. Maybe I’ll start it over again from the beginning so I can hear it again.
SIC! There’s more! You slurped the last drop of milkshake and didn’t realise there was a metal canister with EVEN MORE MILKSHAKE. But not only is there more milkshake, but it’s magically – impossibly, confoundingly – a different flavour entirely that’s even tastier than the original milkshake.
This unexpected, standalone outro section grooves like mad, introducing a scrape-y distorted synth pattern that just shakes its ass all the way until the song’s real ending. Parker sings a few little background lines but you can hardly understand the lyrics and it doesn’t matter. This parts all about the synth.
It’s almost unfortunate that this minute-long groove isn’t its own track that can be put on repeat by itself. Because I would definitely listen to it on repeat.
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Here’s a badass live version if you’re still thirsty…
(Yeah, thought you might be.)