🎧 Review: Deadbeat — Tame Impala
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Kevin Parker returns after a five-year silence with Deadbeat, his fifth studio album under the Tame Impala banner. Released October 17, 2025 on Columbia Records, Deadbeat leans into dance, rave, and electronic textures, drawing deeply from his native Western Australia’s bush doof / rave culture as well as the larger psych-pop palette he’s long mastered.
Sound & Production
If The Slow Rush pushed Parker’s work into slow-motion grooves and immersive studio polish, Deadbeat feels more skeletal and bare—an ambitious pivot toward club structures, rhythms, and minimalism. As Parker told Range, “Deadbeat doesn’t unfold like a collection of radio-ready hits, [he] leans into a far more skeletal soundscape than ever before.”
Tracks like “Ethereal Connection” stretch into extended dance rhythms, while others—“My Old Ways” and “No Reply”—oscillate between faint piano demos and fuller electronic builds, exposing the scaffolding beneath Parker’s usual lush sound. The album is full of detail—rapids of reverb, subtle glitches, vocal sighs, demo echoes—all inserted in ways that feel as much emotional residue as production texture.
The single “Dracula”, released September 26, 2025, is an interesting centerpiece. Co-written with Sarah Aarons (his first Tame Impala track with a co-writer) and aiming for a pop-leaning groove, it blends dance beats with Parker’s signature psychedelic swirl. The video, directed by Julian Klincewicz, leans into nocturnal vistas and bush-rave motifs to match the track’s mood.
Strengths & Emotional Core
What Deadbeat does well is capture a sense of uneasy introspection: guilt, inertia, longing, escape. On songs such as “Loser”, Parker leans into self-critique (“I’m a loser”) but anchors it in rhythmic bounce and melodic hooks, creating that tension between knowing and feeling. Even when the mood is downbeat, the album pushes forward; the closing “End of Summer” hits a bittersweet balance between dance euphoria and melancholic resolution.
It’s bold for Parker to shift into club territory, and much of the album’s success lies in how the emotional texture remains visible beneath that sheen. The internal ruptures—sighs, off-mic vocal cracks, demo-like passages—remind you the man behind it all is struggling too.
Weaknesses & Missteps
That said, Deadbeat doesn’t always stick the landing. Some tracks feel undernourished: parts of “Dracula” drift into pop pastiche rather than tension, and “No Reply” at times wears its repetition thin. The impulses toward more conventional hooks occasionally interrupt the album’s immersive flow. In comparison to prior Tame Impala records, the emotional clarity and cohesion falter at moments. The Guardian review, for example, argues that Parker’s attempt to balance pop success and emotional weight sometimes causes unevenness.
Verdict & Place in His Catalog
Deadbeat is not the return to form many hoped for—but it is an honest step forward. Parker hasn’t abandoned his psychedelic roots; he’s recontextualizing them. In doing that, he invites both critics and fans to ask uncomfortable questions about burnout, fame, and selfhood. For those willing to lean in, there’s a lot to admire—boldness, vulnerability, and sonic risk.
As AudioFuzz’s Hot New Album Friday, Deadbeat doesn’t just mark the return of Tame Impala—it marks a provocative turn in his ever-evolving musical journey. It’s not perfect, but it’s fascinating.