A day after releasing the second preview single from their fifth album, Tame Impala have confirmed further details about the project, which is dubbed Deadbeat and will be released Oct. 17 as the first in a new deal with Columbia Records. See the cover art below.
Mastermind Kevin Parker conceived the album and recorded all the music himself in his Australian hometown of Freemantle and at his Wave House studio in the western city of Injidup. Whereas the seven-minute, heavily electronic first single “End of Summer” was said to “recast Tame Impala as a kind of future primitive rave act,” yesterday’s fresh tune, “Loser,” rides a slinky guitar line atop a sexy, midtempo groove much more in keeping with the band’s vintage sound.
Per a statement, Deadbeat “sounds like the work of an artist with a leveled-up mastery, crafted with a newfound embrace of spontaneity for the renowned perfectionist. How that manifests is a distinct minimalism and crunch, with timbres and textures that add an ineffably new dimension to the sound, as well as a richer, more playful vocal range than ever.”
In line with the first two songs’ downtrodden lyrical content, the new album channels “an endless bummer, a self-deprecating fuck-up stuck in a negative feedback loop when he should have long had his shit together. Dosed in tandem with the music’s euphoric and body-moving urges, Deadbeat pitches raving as self-enquiry, self-medication in lieu of self-care and the kick-on as domestic bliss.”
Deadbeat will be sold in a number of variants, including editions branded with Urban Outfitters and for Indie Record Store Day. Brooklyn Vegan and Alternative Press are offering a limited amount of numbered cassettes.
It’s the follow-up to 2020’s The Slow Rush, which was released just weeks prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of extensive 2026 touring, Tame Impala will play a handful of U.S. arena shows this fall, beginning Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Parker will also be on the DJ decks for three early December shows in Australia opening for Justice, with whom he collaborated on the French electronic duo’s hit 2024 album, Hyperdrama.
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