Currents (album)

This article is about the Tame Impala album. For the Eisley album, see Currents (Eisley album). For other uses, see Current (disambiguation) § Music.
Currents
Studio album by
Tame Impala
Released17 July 2015
Recorded2012–2015
StudioKevin Parker's home studio, Fremantle, Western Australia
Genre
Length51:12
LabelModular
ProducerKevin Parker
Tame Impala chronology
Live Versions
(2014) 		Currents
(2015) 		The Slow Rush
(2020)
Singles from Currents
  1. "Let It Happen"
    Released: 11 March 2015[1]
  2. "'Cause I'm a Man"
    Released: 7 April 2015[1]
  3. "Eventually"
    Released: 15 June 2015[2][3]
  4. "The Less I Know the Better"
    Released: 29 November 2015[4]

Currents is the third studio album by Australian musical project Tame Impala, released on 17 July 2015 by Modular Recordings. It was released by Interscope Records in the United States and by Fiction Records in the United Kingdom, while Caroline International released it in other regions. Like the project's previous two albums, Currents was written, recorded, performed, and produced by Kevin Parker. For the first time, Parker mixed the music and recorded all instruments by himself; the album featured no other collaborators.

After the release of his previous album, Lonerism (2012), Parker began work on Currents, largely recording at his home studio in Fremantle. He engrossed himself with writing and recording, and in keeping with his reputation as a musical auteur, laboured over the details of each song, ultimately causing the release date to be delayed by two months. In contrast to the psychedelic rock sound of the project's prior work, Currents marks a shift to more dance-oriented music, with more emphasis placed on synthesisers than guitars. Parker was inspired to seek a change out of desire to hear Tame Impala's music played in dance clubs and a more communal setting. Thematically, the record is about the process of personal transformation, which many critics interpreted to be the result of a romantic breakup. The album's cover art depicting vortex shedding is a visualisation of these themes.

Currents was supported by the release of the singles "Let It Happen", "'Cause I'm a Man", "Eventually" and "The Less I Know the Better". The album became the project's best charting release, debuting at number one in Australia, number three in the United Kingdom, and at number four in the United States. As of January 2023, Currents has sold over one million copies in the United States. Like its predecessors, the album received critical acclaim and appeared on various critics' lists of the best albums of 2015. At the 2015 ARIA Music Awards, Currents was awarded Best Rock Album and Album of the Year, and it also received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and the J Award for Australian Album of the Year.[5] In December 2021, the album was listed at number 12 in Rolling Stone Australia's list of the "200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time",[6] and in 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Currents 382nd on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

  1. ^ a b Kreps, Daniel (5 April 2015). "Tame Impala Share Infectious Cause I'm a Man From New LP 'Currents'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Eventually by Tame Impala Download". AIRIT. Archived from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Triple J Weekly Additions 22 June 2015". June 2015. Archived from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Tame Impala - "The Less I Know The Better"". Interscope Records. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016.
  5. ^ "The J Award 2015". Triple J. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2015. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  6. ^ Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time Archived 16 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone Australia, Rolling Stone Australia, 06 December 2021. Retrieved 06 December 2021