‘Sun’s Coming Up’: The Tame Impala song that “broke the camel’s back”
One of the biggest indicators of any good Tame Impala song is how layered the soundscape can be. Throughout every single project that Kevin Parker has ever put out, fans can expect overly modulated songs to the point where the entire track feels like a kaleidoscope of sound going through the mind. Then again, Parker was acutely aware of that trope and was not interested in being a one-trick pony.
Throughout the album Lonerism, Parker treats his audience to some of the most cerebral songs of his career, exploring the concept of being alone and what that means for him going forward. Instead of the grand sweeping epic that most might have expected to end, Parker stripped things back as bare as possible for the song ‘Sun’s Coming Up’.
Unlike anything else on the record, the tune features nothing but Parker singing while accompanied by a piano. After the rest of the album, it almost feels like the rug has been pulled out from under the listener, left with only a little tune to keep things going before grinding to a close.
Considering all of the material that Parker was working on, he knew that this song had to end the record, telling NME, “Because all this shit has happened, all these crazy tumbling synths and emotions have happened before. And this song at the end is sombre. All the other songs were immensely layered, and this one is just a piano and a voice”.
Since the rest of the album had been building to this moment, Parker would go on to describe the song as “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, thinking that it broke up all of the monotony that comes with being blasted with sound for the rest of the record. Despite having little in common with its predecessors, Parker thinks that it tied up the album’s themes by “singing about how I can’t be fucked anymore, how I’m gonna detach myself completely”.
Given that the narrator of most of these songs tends to have problems drifting his way through life, this is the moment where everything is laid bare. Instead of the flashiness that comes with every other track, Parker is left to contemplate his life on this song as he sings about the sun rising again and all of the good times he has had in the past slowly turn into memories playing in his mind.
Coming from songs that had to do with a certain idea of loneliness, this is the first time the listener feels that sort of loneliness, no longer having the synths as a security blanket. Although the song’s final lines, “the sun’s coming up now/I guess it’s over”, denote some indifference, Parker’s performance makes it feel earth-shattering, as if everything he’s been building towards has suddenly crumbled to pieces beneath his feet.
While this stands as one of the more raw performances that Tame Impala have ever put to tape, it remains one of the most emotional songs in their canon. Regardless of how many bells and whistles Parker might like to put into his arrangements, this is the eternal reminder to all songwriters that most classics only need to be played on a single instrument to move people.
