Tame Impala Mix CD

In case you missed my post a few days ago, here’s a quick summary of what’s about to happen: I name an artist and the challenge is to create your playlist with a duration of 80 minutes or less the way we used to with writable CDs, then explain your reasoning. This is our first mookiefantana Mix CD. The artist: Tame Impala.

Our three writers today are:

Andy Brawner – Lead Writer at Starbucks. Musician. Songwriter. Multi-instrumentalist. Easily the most qualified of us to both curate a Tame Impala mix CD and then put his reasoning in words in a manner that will both inform and entertain. My older brother.

Andy Brawner, a.k.a. Big Cat – Freshman at Green Bay East High School. Baritone Saxophone player. Future football and track star for the East High Red Devils. I still don’t know what he wrote as I’m typing this and I’m terrified. My son.

Charlie Brawner – Project Scheduler for Tweet/Garot Mechanical. Trumpet player (25 years ago). Brother and father of people who know more about Tame Impala than I do. Me.

Now that we have the intros out of the way, let’s get started. I’m going to let my brother, Andy, lead us off. I’m not going to do that thing they do on TV where they make you wait until the end for the best. Instead, you get to experience the best first, then decide for yourself if it’s even worth it to continue. Andy, you’re up:

Andy Brawner

INTRO: Charlie and Andy have made a proposition and/or issued a challenge. I’ll take it as a challenge because I live a small, meager life and need to imagine drama in order to motivate myself to do much of anything. The challenge is to come up with an 80-minute (max) Tame Impala mixtape and accompanying writeup. 

Here you go, you sons of bitches. 

1. It Is Not Meant To Be
Sure, I’ve led a sad and miserable life riddled with mistakes and regrets. At least I didn’t screw up on Tame Impala. Journey with me now to 2010, when a trippy looking record called Innerspeaker got a very strong Pitchfork review. I saw the word “psychedelic” in the subhead, and history has proven I will listen to pretty much anything referred to as “psychedelic.” (Note: In fact-checking myself, I must report that the term used in the subhead is not “psychedelic,” but, in fact, “psych rock.” I suck.) Everything about Innerpseaker, well, inner-speaks to me. I like to piss off my brother every once in a while by provocatively floating the idea that it might be my favorite Tame Impala record. There was, and is, something genuinely shocking about what comes out of the speakers. Static, followed by filtered guitars sounding broken and far away and perfect (and playing deceptively tricky chords). It’s hard to place that sound chronologically; even an astute listener might believe this is a long lost psych gem from 1969. I spent the next few years telling anyone who would listen that I’d found a modern day band with music like Pink Floyd and vocals like John Lennon. In retrospect, an OK-at-best take. No one cares what I say anyway, so all good.     

2. Nangs
What is a song, anyway? (Let’s go existential AF, why not.) Is Nangs a song even? Know what? I don’t care. Never have. Take your classic pop song structure and drown it in the lake like a bat swiped off the ceiling in a fishing net. I love Nangs. It’s the perfect second song (both on Currents and on this playlist). It puts an ambiguous punctuation mark on the first song and tells the listener to buckle up. You don’t know where this ride is headed. More specifically to Tame Impala though, I love what Kevin did here with synths. He dipped toes into the synth world on Lonerism and then drowned himself in it (like…a bat? Again?) on Currents. This particular synth, the Roland Juno 106, is a universe unto itself. For a kid like me who grew up on Duran Duran in the 80s, hearing these sounds contextualized for our current(s) moment makes me oh so happy.

3. Let It Happen
I’m not going to claim that I put hours of thought into the sequencing of this playlist, and I suppose that breaks the cardinal rule of playlists. Or mixtapes. Or whatever this is. Too bad. It’s my party and I’ll die if I want to. Point being, one thing I like about mixtapes is that moving songs around and sandwiching them between unfamiliar material can provide a fresh perspective. Hearing Let It Happen after Nangs changes everything. (Although, if I remember correctly, Tame Impala opened a lot of shows on the Currents tour with Nangs followed by Let It Happen, so maybe this isn’t a revolution of sequencing.) As much as I’d like to fill this tape with obscure deep cuts, any Tame Impala collection that doesn’t have Let It Happen is a lie and a crime against humanity. Do you remember first hearing this song? I sure do. And I remember listening to it non stop for three weeks after that too. It’s one of those songs that you hear and think, Oh, something big is about to happen, everything is about to change. Kevin Parker’s world was about to split wide open into some kaleidoscopic cosmic Coachella-headlining infinity. Lucky bastard.  

4. Solitude Is Bliss
Kevin Parker’s personal thesis statement, though I’m not really a person who cares all that much about lyrics. If there’s one theme that runs through most of his material, it’s the idea that he’ll do his own thing and if you don’t like it, that’s just fine. I can get behind that. He put the loner in Lonerism. Also, let’s take a moment to admire dude as a pure drummer. One of the best around.  

5. Jeremy’s Storm
Stop reading my stinking trash heap of dumb words and seek out the video of Tame Impala playing Innerspeaker in its entirety from their little studio house in Australia in 2021. The house is on the coast, and throughout the performance, storm clouds gather ominously over the ocean. I can’t say any more because I get too excited thinking about this. I love this song more than most people love whatever the hell it is they love. What do they love? Soda pop? Chicken sandwiches? NASCAR? Who knows.   

6. That’s All For Everyone
I don’t believe mixtapes need deep cuts; that’s for amateurs. But here’s one anyway. One of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, so I’m very satisfied to see it striking a chord with Parker. His version doesn’t do anything revelatory, other than show the influence of an obscure Fleetwood Mac song on the whole Tame Impala vibe, particularly apparent on classics like Apocalypse Dreams. If you ever wonder where Kevin gets all those amazing chord progressions, here’s a big clue.

7. Endors Toi
French for “fall asleep.” As I interpret the lyrics, an appreciation of the narcotic power of music itself. “It’s a hypnotist’s arm and it works like a charm.” To me, the arm is the tonearm of a turntable. A charm indeed. The first 50 times I heard Lonerism I didn’t know (or care to know) where this song ended and where Apocalypse Dreams began. Even now, 10 years later, I usually listen to the two in tandem. They belong together. The delay on the vocals in this one gives me chills, and in some alternate universe I imagine Dave Fridmann would have gone on mixing all Tame Impala records. I’m not saying he could have improved on Currents, but I’d pay money to hear what he would have done to it. Appreciate the way the bass line gets the attention of the guitar and then the guitar echoes it the second time around. Melodies inside of melodies inside of songs inside of worlds.  

8. Apocalypse Dreams
See above. No way I was going to let any other song follow Endors Toi. These two songs are the sun and the moon. And this song is probably my favorite song that I’ve ever heard. The chord progression is the fever dream of a black hole, and the last movement (starting around the 3:00 mark) feels like I’m taking off in a space ship and Kevin Parker is Han Solo. Send me into the black hole, I don’t care as long as this is playing and I can play dominos with Chewbaca. We’ll down beers and make fun of Luke.  

9. One More Year
The Slow Rush doesn’t have the impact for me of the three Tame Impala records before it, but that’s more about me than it. It’s still very good. And this is my favorite song on the record. I’ve said this elsewhere, but I wish the record cover weren’t red and I wish it didn’t come out just as the pandemic hit. Those two facts hurt my perception of the record.   

10.    Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control
Another chord progression from the great beyond. A trainwreck of a song in the best way. Takes me back to driving along Lake Crescent, Olympic Peninsula, late at night with my brother in July 2014. Great memories of a great adventure that I’d give anything to revisit. (Whoever burned down the visitor building at Hurricane Ridge has us to answer to.) Hearing these songs late at night while driving along the edge of a continent is the perfect way. I believe that while we drove, UFOs and angels swirled above, smiling down on us and blessing our voyage.

11.    Eventually
An angry, regretful, defiant, sad song with an unforgettable hook. The more I hear Currents, the more I think it’s a genuine masterpiece. For reasons I can’t quite articulate, it reminds me of MJ’s Thriller. Some time when my brain works better I’ll try to unpack that one.    

12.    The Bold Arrow Of Time
Where is the one on this song? Must be measures of five lurking in there, but even my best Neil Peart brain won’t help me solve this one. Tell me, Kevin! Dammit! Anyway, the Sabbath/Cream/Led Zep force is strong with this one. Stick around for the ending, a song unto itself. One of those little Kevin-isms I really like is how he often tucks a whole other song into what you thought was the song. Meta.

13.    Lucidity
So brilliant in so many subtle ways. Sounds are so good. Drumming and guitar are so good. The galloping groove. A lot of the first half of Innerspeaker blends together for me, so this song stands in for Desire Be, Desire Go and maybe some others. I always get lost in those songs tbh, and that’s pretty high praise seeing as I’ve heard the record one million times.

14.    Half Full Glass Of Wine (Live)
Let’s end on something innocent and naïve, a straight Cream ripoff from the early early days whose live version here makes me feel a younger and more hopeful. In some other life I was an Aussie stoner with a surfboard and a dream. In this one, just a bitter old man eating yogurt and making bottles.  

TRACK COUNT BY ALBUM
Innerspeaker: 5
Lonerism: 3
Currents: 3
The Slow Rush: 1
Live Versions: 1
Other: 1

OUTRO: Thanks to Char and Andy for proposing this. I needed it, and will look forward to reading their submissions.

I guess I’ll go next and attempt to follow that up because I don’t have my son’s submission yet. If he doesn’t have it done by the time I’m done pasting and editing mine I’m going to have to harass his ass. One quick, useless note. I’m using Spotify playlists here because WordPress won’t allow me to embed an Apple Music playlist. Apparently it’s considered “premium” content or something. I would need a business account to do that and I’m not spending $300/year on this website unless someone wants to sponsor me. Seriously, does anyone want to sponsor me?

Anyway, here’s my playlist and post:

Charlie Brawner

I’m always fascinated by the idea that a person’s love for a song or album is influenced by outside variables.  For me there is no greater example of that than Tame Impala.  While the word “psychedelic” makes an unknown album an automatic must-listen for my brother, I’m indifferent.  Now that I see the word on paper, I’m not even sure of the definition.  When I hear the term psychedelic applied to music I think 1960’s bands that I’ve largely ignored and drugs with which I have literally no experience.  Let’s just say I’m not the target audience for anyone making music labeled as psychedelic.  The closest I come in my music collection is Jimi Hendrix and some Beatles albums that are so widely beloved I’ve always considered them more pop than psychedelic.  That said, Yellow Submarine is some psychedelic shit, right?  Man, I digress.

If you’ve read any of the hundreds of posts on this website you’re aware that my musical taste leans more toward soul, funk, hip hop, R&B, and jazz.  Tame Impala doesn’t fit in any of those categories.  So why do I love him/them so much?  You know what?  Before I start, allow me another digression: Is Tame Impala him or them?  My understanding is that Kevin Parker is Tame Impala.  He writes, records, and produces all of the music himself.  Sure, there are other people involved when Tame Impala tours, but when you’re listening to a Tame Impala record you’re listening to Kevin Parker.  Therefore, I’m going to refer to Tame Impala as “him” not “them” much the same way I spent a good portion of my life referring to Pink Floyd as “him” because I thought they were just a dude named Floyd.  Speaking of psychedelic!

Back to my question: Why do I love Tame Impala so much?  I was introduced to Tame Impala on a late night drive across the Olympic Peninsula in the summer of 2014.  I had just watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life.  We were fueled by cheap convenience store snacks and I was more than a little carsick.  The high from an unforgettable day combined with my mild nausea and Andy’s Subaru weaving through the mountains under a full moon created the perfect environment for my first Tame Impala experience.  Andy pressed play on the 2012 album Lonerism and by the time we reached the fourth track “Mind Mischief” it was about the best goddamned music I’d ever heard in my life.  If I had heard Tame Impala for the first time walking around a CVS or eating at a mediocre restaurant I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought.  Instead – like the best DJs – Andy knew exactly what music the moment called for.  I added Lonerism and Innerspeaker to my iTunes library as soon as my phone could acquire a signal.  I haven’t stopped listening since.  In fact, my son became obsessed with Tame Impala in the past year and that’s only served to stoke the flame.  A few thoughts on my playlist:

Like any good playlist, this one is meant to be listened to in order.  I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I did just in case.

Instead of breaking this down track-by-track, I’m going to just throw some random thoughts at you since I’ve already taken enough of your time:

If you start a Tame Impala playlist with any song other than “Let it Happen” I might have to fight you.

You’ll probably notice that Innerspeaker is underrepresented.  A couple reasons for that.  First, it’s the album I’ve listened to the least.  Andy got me hooked on Lonerism.  Then Currents was released shortly after.  It took a while before I went backward to catch the album that I missed.  By that time I was so hooked on the other two that I’ve never given it a proper chance.  The other reason is that I don’t find as many standout tracks on that album.  I prefer listening to it start to finish because it’s so even.  Not a lot of peaks and valleys.

The Slow Rush has the most tracks on the playlist for the exact opposite reason.  It has the most standout tracks to me, but it also has a few tracks that I’m likely to skip.  I love the album, but it’s less consistent than the others.  The Slow Rush is also far more polished than the other three albums.  You can feel Currents getting more electronic than the first two albums, but he goes all in on The Slow Rush.  A track like “Breathe Deeper” sounds so crisp and tight compared to the distortion of “It Is Not Meant To Be” yet I love them equally for completely different reasons.  I guess that’s evolution.

Speaking of “Breathe Deeper”, the moment I heard that song my reaction was, “Whoa?!?  Was Kevin Parker listening to Hall & Oates when he wrote this because the first eight bars sound like they were sampled from “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”.  Somehow every time I point that out to someone they look at me like I’m crazy.  How am I the only one hearing this?  Not only is the bass line loosely similar, but the keyboard chords on the 1 and 3 sound damn near exactly the same.  If I ever meet Kevin Parker the first question I’m asking him is, “Was Breathe Deeper inspired by Hall & Oates?”

Ditto for “It Might Be Time” and “The Logical Song” by Supertramp.

It was at this point in my writing that I received my brother’s submission for this column.  On numerous occasions he mentions lyrics and

Then there’s “Patience”.  Here’s my recollection: Four years after Currents everyone was impatiently waiting another album.  Then singles “Patience” and “Borderline” dropped at almost the same time.  Tame Impala performed them on SNL in March of 2019.  The new album was imminent.  Then it wasn’t.  In October it was formally announced that The Slow Rush would be released on Valentine’s Day 2020.  Sometime between March and October, Kevin Parker announced that “Patience” would not be part of the new album.  I’d look up his reasons, but I’m still pissed about it and don’t want to hear them.  Something about being a perfectionist and him thinking the vibe from the song doesn’t fit the album.  Whatever.  “Patience” is my favorite Tame Impala song.  If you haven’t done so yet, do yourself a favor and grab a nice pair of headphones.  Then connect them to your preferred listening device and press play on “Patience”.  If heaven really does exist, I hope that the moment I die “Patience” will kick in.  Then for four minutes and 52 seconds my soul ascends and I watch the world slowly drift away as the song surrounds me.  That’s how much I love “Patience”.  I want it to be the first song I hear in the afterlife.  It’s grand and it’s gorgeous and leaving it off The Slow Rush or any album is a colossal mistake.

TRACK COUNT BY ALBUM
Innerspeaker: 2
Lonerism: 4
Currents: 4
The Slow Rush: 5
Live Versions: 0
Other: 1

There it is. Exactly 80 minutes of perfection. I’m going to shut up now and let the young superfan take over. It’s time to turn in your homework, Big Cat.

Andy “Big Cat” Brawner

Let me start off by saying that Tame impala is and always will be the best artist ever because he is that cool. He isn’t like other artists where he uses the same three instruments for every song like Taylor Swift. Kevin Parker uses different instruments for every song. For example, listen to “The Less I Know the Better” and compare it to “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” (same album by the way) they sound so much different yet they’re both so good. I first discovered Tame Impala by scrolling on Instagram one day and hearing “Eventually” in a random Spider-Man video and having the song stuck in my head all day long. Later that night I typed up the lyrics in Apple Music and somehow it showed up. A few weeks later me and dad go to a record store and I see the album that “Eventually” was on hanging on the wall. I told dad that I liked a song on the record and he told me that he likes the record and so does Uncle Andy. The next day on my way home from Madison I started to listen to more songs from that album. I don’t know why but the next song i listened to was “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” which is the last song on the album. I remember being so obsessed with it I immediately added it to my playlists and I never turned it off. A few days later I realized that the person that wrote the two songs I’d been listening to for a week now had more songs so I pressed play on “Let It Happen” which is the first song on the album Currents. I must admit, pressing play on “Let It Happen” and listening to it for the first time was the best moment of my life. I’ve never had a greater 7 minute and 47 seconds in my life, which sounds sad but it is what it is. From that moment on Tame Impala has become a huge part of my life and no other artist can top him for me. Here is my Tame Impala mix tape:

1. Let It Happen
“Let It Happen” is THE best song I have ever heard. It is so much different from any other song I have ever listened to. It starts off strong then gets weaker and weaker then builds up again then gets weaker then builds up for a final time. It’s magic. I can’t name a single song that sounds like “Let It Happen”. It’s so unique in it’s own way that I don’t understand how someone could say “I don’t like this song,” and if someone does, I’ll put them in their place and they’d forever be dead to me. I am listening to this song right now and it is impossible to not move your head to the beat or tap your feet on the ground it is THAT GOOD. If you pay attention to the lyrics you’d know that they are deep. “Let It Happen” follows the progression of someone feeling like they are becoming something else. They’re becoming the kind of person they thought they’d never become.

2. Breathe Deeper
“Breathe Deeper” is second on my list because I want the first few songs to be exciting then get more of a chill/slow vibe then slowly bring it back up to exciting. I think “Breathe Deeper” is perfect for that. I actually just discovered “Breathe Deeper” not too long ago which is sad because I’ve owned the record for months now and I mostly focused on “Borderline” and “Is It True”. I almost never really listened closely to the other songs as much as I did with those two. Now that I listened to “Breathe Deeper” I know that I’ll never ignore another Tame Impala song again.

3. The Less I Know the Better
This song is definitely one of my personal favorites. I first listened to this the day I listened to “Let It Happen” so you already know that day was one of the best days of my life. My favorite part of the song goes, “I was doing fine without ya, till i saw your face now I can’t erase” from 2:36 – 2:45. I actually love this song so much, even the music video. It is so weird yet you understand and relate to it somehow including the lyrics.

4. Is It True
When I first heard this song I played it on repeat on my phone while riding my bike and just sitting in my room doing nothing. When I was at my homecoming I had to fight the urge to ask the DJ to play this song because I knew he would have said no. Most people when they listen to music they pay attention to the lyrics but that’s not the case with this song, most of his songs in fact. My favorite part of the song doesn’t have lyrics, it is just simply Kevin Parker doing his thing.

5. Elephant 

6. Patience
Something about this song just makes it different then most of his songs. It is amazing. The one thing I hate about this song is that it didn’t make it into the album The Slow Rush. I have no idea what was going on in Kevin’s head. I think this song would have made the album way better than it already is.

7. New Person, Same Old Mistakes
Every time I hear this song I immediately think of Rocky because the first time I heard this song was also the day I watched Rocky or the first time (another great day for me). 

8. ‘Cause I’m a Man

9. Yes I’m Changing
One day I was riding my bike home from workouts in the summer and it was 7:47 exactly. I was riding on the trail next to the river with a beautiful sunset. It was perfect I wish I could go back to that moment. Ever since then whenever there is a sunset and I am outside or in the car I need to put this song on to make the moment 100x better.

10. Instant Destiny

11. Mind Mischief

12. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
This is the first song on Lonerism I listened to and it is also my favorite on the album. Kevin made it sound so old like it was made in the 50s because when you play it on a record it sounds like what you’d think a record player sounds like unlike his other songs sounding amazing on record. I don’t know how he does it.

13. Reality in Motion
This song makes me happy.

14. Borderline
For the longest time this song has been my favorite on this album by the way it stands out from the rest. “Borderline” is one of my OG favorites because when I first listened to it my playlist was just “Let it happen”, “The Less I Know the Better”, “New Person, Same Old Mistakes”, and “Borderline”. Now my playlist is way bigger trust me.

15. Eventually
The first Tame Impala song I heard and I am so grateful that it happened because Tame Impala is the first artist I loved that I discovered on my own. Beside that this song is very good.

16. Lucidity
This is probably my favorite song on Innerspeaker because it’s got the old theme (the whole album is like this) that I love very much.

17. Apocalypse Dreams
I think it is perfect to end this playlist with this song because it is my uncles favorite and you always have to end on a high note. “Apocalypes dreams” is one of my favorites because it has the same old feeling like the other songs on the album, this one just hits different.

TRACK COUNT BY ALBUM
Innerspeaker: 1
Lonerism: 4
Currents: 7
The Slow Rush: 4
Live Versions: 0
Other: 1

TOTAL TRACK COUNT BY ALBUM
Innerspeaker: 8
Lonerism: 11
Currents: 14
The Slow Rush: 10
Live Versions: 1
Other: 3

SONGS THAT APPEAR ON TWO PLAYLISTS
Borderline
Breathe Deeper
‘Cause I’m a Man
Enders Toi
Eventually
Is It True
It Is Not Meant To Be
Lucidity
Mind Mischief
New Person, Same Old Mistakes
Patience
Solitude is Bliss
Yes I’m Changing

SONGS THAT APPEAR ON ALL THREE PLAYLISTS
Apocalypse Dreams
Let It Happen

What have we learned? Not surprisingly, Currents is the most popular album among the three of us if you go by this list with Lonerism coming in second. Seems about right to me. Currents was probably going to be number one anyway, but Big Cat made sure that happened with 7 of his 17 tracks coming from that album. Big Cat and I favored The Slow Rush much more than Andy, who had a lot more coming from Innerspeaker than either of us did. Also not surprising since Andy has been a fan of the band for much longer. If you take the 15 songs that appear on at least two of our Mix CDs and sort them by average track number on our individual mixes you get a 74-minute beast of a goddamned playlist that does a nice job of covering the Tame Impala catalog. I introduce to you the Master Tame Impala Mix CD brought to you by the brothers/fathers/sons/uncles/nephews Brawner:

Many thanks to my brother, son, and Kevin Parker for making this happen. I don’t think any of us leave this post any more informed than we were going in aside from me learning that the best eight minutes of my son’s 15 years on this planet were the first time he heard “Let It Happen”. I might have thought it would be a family trip or a Christmas morning or something, but honestly, I’m good with that. It’s tough to beat the first time you hear that song. Respect. I hope you enjoy our playlists and come out of this bigger fans of Tame Impala than you already were. If you have ideas for our next Mix CD, message me.