“Cheesy”: Kevin Parker almost binned Tame Impala’s 2015 breakthrough
For songs written in the past 15 years, it’s difficult to know yet which ones will transcend to become iconic. But Tame Impala has managed to bag one of those early spots.
2015 may only have been a little over a decade ago, but it seems like Tame Impala, or more appropriately, the mind of Kevin Parker, has been around a lot longer than that. The reason for this is mainly because, from the very first second he broke onto the scene, something electric was in the air. It was the familiar sounds of the past, but brought into an exciting, new future.
Obviously, the prime example being referred to here is ‘The Less I Know The Better’, the song that broke Tame Impala to the mainstream but also has come to be largely defined as Parker’s masterpiece. The smooth psychedelia, the easy beats, the melting groove all came together in a three-and-a-half-minute stroke of genius.
However, Parker himself felt less inclined to believe the hype. In fact, he thought the song was pretty basic – basic to the point where it fell far below the illustrious standards he set for himself, and didn’t feel it warranted being included on a Tame Impala album. Yes, that’s right: he almost binned off his own breakthrough.
“That song originally I thought shouldn’t be on a Tame Impala album, because it has this dorky, white disco funk,” Parker later confessed, admitting to the cardinal sin that would have many of his fans frothing at the mouth. “I wouldn’t call it cheesy,” he reasoned, “but it’s not trying to be too cool, because the lyrics are pretty dorky and the groove is pretty dorky.”
You could counter-argue that this choice of words was rather cringe-inducing in itself, thus rendering the whole point redundant, but then Parker finally got to the truth of the matter. “But at the same time, for me, I love that kind of music,” he relented. “I don’t know why, but I’ve been obsessed with disco for the last year or two.”
Disco is one of those genres that is very hard to gauge the cultural response to, as proven by Parker’s musings here. Commercially, it’s a powerhouse, and among the masses, it’s beloved. But if you turn to look at serious musicians, outwardly there’s often a sniff of derision before they’re forced to admit the reality: it’s really good shit.
Unlike his usual laborious methods, Parker claimed he recorded ‘The Less I Know The Better’ in just 15 minutes. The layers of instrumentation would have taken much longer, of course, but it was possibly down to this quick beginning that he felt he could easily throw it away, and initially handed it off to Mark Ronson.
Eventually, realising at the last second that he’d made the mistake of his life, Parker managed to prise his masterpiece back into his own hands and released it on Currents, one of the most defining albums of the era. But what if he had just binned it off? One of the most iconic songs of modern times, simply left to rot.
