New Person Same Old Mistakes

New (School) Year, New Me

New Person Same Old Mistakes by Tame Impala

Recommended by Tim

Tame Impala is interesting because it is an Australian group that consists of Kevin Parker, Jay Watson, Dominic Simper, Cam Avery, and Julien Barbagallo...but Parker writes, records, performs, and produces the music (x).

The band members other than Parker are around for live performances.

Watson and Simper have been featured on previous studio recordings, but it was all Parker for the most recent album.

Parker seems to be a cool, modern dude. He talks about the changing music industry here:

Right now, doing another album doesn’t excite me. There’s something narrow-minded about thinking an album is the only way you can put out music, especially in the world we’re in at the moment. Anything is possible. There’s so many people doing interesting things with the internet and technology, there could be so many ways of making music and listening to it ... you can make music anywhere ... There are so many possibilities, my brain is overloading on them all. I just need to wait, think about things a bit more. Then I’ll know what to do next. (source)

But, as we know, he did end up creating a new album in July 2015: Currents, which "marks a shift to more dance-oriented music" (x). That's the album where today's song recommendation comes from.

Currents won Best Rock Album and Album of the Year at the 2015 ARIA Awards (x).

Parker describes the album as "minimal...instead of a supreme pizza, where you just throw everything on...less rock again, and more electronic" (x). The electronica certainly rings true with New Person Same Old Mistakes, though I'm a bit suspect of the "minimal" description.

You've got synth on synth on synth, vocals filtered to the high heavens with a dreamy overlay, and whatever the hell this interlude is.

We're really vibin' and I dig it, but I don't know if it sounds like "only us[ing] what's needed." I relate it more to an earlier quote by Parker about writing "the kind of music that is the result of one person constructing an awesome symphony of sound. You can layer your own voice 700 times for half a second if you want, and I just love that kind of music" (x).

But hey, what do I know about producing music?

If you've never heard of Tame Impala, but this song sounds familiar, then maybe it's because you've heard Rihanna's cover of the track on her wildly popular album ANTI.

Parker and co. were reportedly "really happy" with the cover, and I understand why. It's honestly so true to the original that the only difference I really hear is that Same Ol' Mistakes features Rihanna's vocals instead of Parker's. I can't imagine anyone having anything to complain about except maybe that it's too similar.

Compare this to yesterday's post on California Dreamin' where there were many, many more covers of the song, but almost every artist brought something of their own style to the song.

But, hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe Rihanna wanted to broaden her own horizons.

In any case, she does a good cover of a really funky and fresh track, and I daresay she introduced the song to a wider audience than Tame Impala could have hoped to reach.

Overview:

Genre:
Psychadelic Pop

Favorite Lyrics:
But maybe your story
ain't so different from the rest.

Verdict:
Started from MySpace, now we're here.