Tame Impala's Apocalypse Dream

Besides being one of the best albums of 2010, Tame Impala's debut Innerspeaker was the record that seemed to secure a place for neo-psyche in the mainstream, or thereabouts. After a decade of lysergic heaviosity from the likes of The Black Angels and a slew of others -- including, not insignificantly, the head shop, hip hop crossover of The Slew -- Tame Impala came out of nowhere (Australia) to land the MGMT and Black Keys opening slots that The Brian Jonestown Massacre were never gonna get.

At the risk of sounding cliched, the band's great strength on Innerspeaker is its exuberance. Guitarist-vocalist-composer Kevin Parker was barely out of his teens when the album started turning up on year end lists everywhere, and the passion and sense of discovery behind the fat production and retro sonic palette gives Innerspeaker a big leg-up in the largely moribund world of rock music, not to mention Parker's dangerously subtle way with a hook. Everything old sounds new again on tracks like "Solitude is Bliss," and the rest of the album is no less crafty. You get lost in its murk and swirl, everything bleeds into itself, and the melodies bubble up seemingly out of nowhere.

The band releases its new album, Lonerism, in October. A teaser, "Apocalypse Dreams," appeared two weeks ago, and points to more of what we heard on Innerspeaker but on a scale befitting the band's ascent from the bedroom to the world's stadia (and you should hear what they've done with Fleetwood Mac's "That's All for Everyone" while we're at it). We're properly excited, but the correct thing to do in this case is leave you with something from the past. "Vacuum Cleaner" is the only single by the British group Tintern Abbey, and it's developed its own heady cult since its release in 1967. One listen is all it takes, and you'll likely be experiencing whatever it is that Kevin Parker brings to the office every day.