Please don't stop the music.
06/Tame Impala/Lonerism
Lonerism opens with a chant: "I gotta be above it, I gotta be above it, I gotta be above it", repeated as the drums and sonic flourishes come in. Eventually the chant is not the focal, but it never leaves, it merely takes a backseat to everything else, letting the melodies drown out the thoughts and the voices in the head. Flip over the album and your greeted with a photo of a cluttered room, Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker sprawled on his back, guitar in hand, surrounded by musical equipment. SWALLOWED by musical equipment. The photo is a break in the conversation being had throughout the disc between Kevin and his thoughts/Kevin and the world. A break from the asking of questions and search for one's place in a world that doesn't seem too keen on wanting you around. A quiet moment on an album in which the ebb and flow of the band's pyschedelic textures are often turned up loud to address (or muffle) the matter at hand. Lonerism is Kevin and the band's album long conversation with the only audience who will have them, and the only audience they want: themselves. Hence the tender loving care applied to the ferocity present in the empty room. When no one's looking you often get the needed work done, and "be above it". Lonerism aims to prove this correct.
KEY TRACKS: Apocalypse Dreams/Feels Like We Only Go Backwards/Keep on Lying
07/Frank Ocean/Channel Orange
08/Schoolboy Q/Habits & Contradictions
09/Joey Bada$$/1999
10/Alabama Shakes/Boys & Girls
11/Hot Chip/In Our Heads
12/Grimes/Visions
13/Santigold/Master of My Make-Believe
14/Japandroids/Celebration Rock
15/Bat for Lashes/The Haunted Man
16/Fun./Some Nights
17/the xx/coexist
18/Solange/True
19/John Mayer/Born & Raised
20/The Walkmen/Heaven & 21/Grizzly Bear/Shields
22/Beach House/Bloom
23/Lower Dens/Nootropics
24/Cat Power/Sun
25/Prinzhorn Dance School/Clay Class
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