Tame Impala‘s fifth studio album Deadbeat is still a month away, but we now know a little more what it will sound like.
Kevin Parker‘s psychedelic pop project has dropped the 12-track setlist for Deadbeat, using the platform of his socials to do so.
Tame Impala gets word out with a simple post, which features a spinning, colored vinyl with the album’s tracks flashing up, three at a time.
If that doesn’t get the juices pumping, switch on the audio. The soundbed to Tame Impala’s post is a snippet of a new track. On it, Parker sings: “In the end I hope it’s you and me / In the darkness I would never leave, you / Ever seen me in the light of day / It’s far too late, the time must come.”
Deadbeat is primed for a global release Oct. 17th, Tame Impala’s first through the Sony Music machine, by way of a new deal with Columbia Records, ending a years-long relationship with Modular Recordings and Universal Music.
The first two tracks from it are the lengthy, dancefloor ready “End of Summer,” and the latest release, “Loser,” a funky throwback track that’s accompanied with a music video directed by Kristofski and starring Stranger Things‘ Joe Keery (aka Djo).
Another cut, understood to be “Ethereal Connection,” was gifted to the world as an untitled b-side for the 12-inch of “End of Summer”, which was sold on the Aussie artist’s website with a limited number of copies.
As previously reported, Deadbeat is inspired by the “bush doof” culture of Parker’s native, Western Australia rave scene.
A message on the pre-order page for the Deadbeat vinyl reckons “Parker sculpts a collection of wickedly potent club-psych explorations as a vehicle for some of his most direct, brain-wormy songwriting to date, recasting Tame Impala as a kind of future primitive rave act in the process.”
Deadbeat will drop more than half a decade after The Slow Rush, from February 2020, a record that went to No. 1 on Australia’s ARIA Chart, and earned career peak positions on the Billboard 200 and Official U.K. Albums Chart UK, both at No. 3. Its predecessor, 2015’s Currents, topped the Australian chart and crashed the top 5 in the U.S. (at No. 4) and in the U.K. (No. 3), where Parker and his Tame Impala bandmates collected the Brit Award for best international group.
Although Tame Impala is not currently on tour, Parker will enjoy the southern summer when he takes the stage as a a special guest DJ for Justice’s Australian arena tour in December 2025.
Watch the clip below and check out the setlist in full.
Deadbeat setlist.
1. My Old Ways
2. No Reply
3. Dracula
4. Loser
5. Oblivion
6. Not My World
7. Piece of Heaven
8. Obsolete
9. Ethereal Connection
10. See You On Monday (You’re Lost)
11. Afterthought
12. End of Summer