Album Review: Deadbeat

BY: CAMILA TABORA / STAFF WRITER

The cover of Deadbeat, featuring Kevin Parker himself, as well as his daughter Peach. [PHOTO CREDIT: Columbia Records]

Deadbeat was Tame Impala’s 5th studio album, releasing on October 17, 2025, almost 5 whole years after his last album. Tame Impala is the musical project of Kevin Parker, who rose to fame with his unique electronic instrumentalism and psychedelic pop sound found in his past albums like Currents and The Slow Rush. 

Due to the immense success of songs like “The Less I Know The Better,” “Borderline,” and “Let It Happen,” Parker has quickly risen to massive mainstream success, winning a Grammy, producing songs for huge pop acts, starring in the soundtracks of multiple blockbusters, and collaborating with the likes of Justice, Gorillaz, Blood Orange, KAYTRANADA, 070 Shake, and Lil Yachty. 

As a result, this album was highly anticipated by many, including me. Unfortunately, Deadbeat was, for the most part, disappointing. What made Tame Impala’s sound so special was its particular indie electronica approach. It bridged the gap between fans of Clairo and fans of Daft Punk, all while being objectively catchy enough to appeal to a broad audience. 

As a whole, production was surprisingly minimalist; songs tended to rely on a singular riff or beat throughout, with very little chord progression. “Not My World,” for example, started out with some darker-sounding synths that I was initially excited about. However, as the song progresses, not only does the original beat get tired after far too many repetitions, but when it does eventually have some advancement, the song leans more for a brighter sound. I was hoping for some of the sweeping drama of what made his older hits so effective, which I felt was lost here.

Additionally, the songs felt empty and juvenile at times. Many sounded more like songs off of a Nintendo original soundtrack than a Tame Impala project. Admittedly, many had a certain frutiger aero quality to them that does appeal to a niche that grows by the day in popularity; one need only look at the success of After, especially with their single release Deep Diving. What it misses, though, is a full embrace of this concept. It often felt more like an accidental snippet of an idea rather than a purposeful theme Parker  was using for a certain aesthetic cue . 

Moreover, what After touched on and Tame Impala was not able to do successfully is have songs that use their genre approach to have compelling chord progressions. After masterfully delves into the folds of trip-hop to produce an authentically nostalgic sound while also exploring both upbeat and seductive concepts.

Most instrumentals in Deadbeat were repetitive and predictable at best and wholly unsatisfying at worst. Parker attempts to have inspirations varying from reggaeton,  house, hard bass, and even some indie rock, but ultimately dumbs all these concepts down and strips them of the excitement that makes them work to begin with. 

Many songs take on a more ambient quality, which at times is appealing and at others is boring. The lack of sonic development in the ambient details gives it more the effect of adding white noise to a song rather than giving it an ethereal feel. Many songs also put airy effects on Parker’s voice, which tend to make it a grating detractor to sounds that already feel cloudy.

My lowest rated songs on the album, “No Reply” and "Loser,” conceptually take a unique approach but ultimately sound hollow. The songs all had a certain charm to them but felt overall sleek, shiny, and airy with no real substance.

Lyrically, this is where the problem is most evidently apparent. I understand that with the name choice that the narration is supposed to be exploring an unpleasant childishness, but with the production, especially when Parker attempts to sing in a higher pitch, his voice ends up feeling whiny. 

Songs like “Obsolete” and "Loser," in which he sings about becoming pathetic from love, felt less like an endearing teenage confession and more like a corporate idea of  teenage love, which in turn, ages the singer and makes him simply sound immature. 

“No Reply" was definitely the worst lyrically, however, as the song essentially boils down to him being so pathetically self-conscious that he cannot even bring himself to reply to his romantic interests’ texts. The most egregious example came when he sang, “I just want to seem like a normal guy…/You’re a cinephile, I watch Family Guy/ On a Friday night, off a rogue website/ When I should be out with some friends of mine.” 

This line in particular makes the narrator seem like he believes himself to be way more quirky than he really is, and the uninspired colloquial lyricism and boring rhyme scheme almost reminded me of some of the offenses found in Taylor Swift's latest albums (Albeit with less mention of Travis Kelce’s “magic wand.”)

Most lines tended to resort to trite romantic ideas, even the album’s most introspective song, “My Old Ways,”’ which revisits themes of personal regression. However, we already saw this exact message in “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” from Currents, which made it lose its ingenuity to an extent. 

Admittedly, some songs did come at the topic of love from a pretty romantic angle. “Piece of Heaven” was my favorite romantic track lyrically because it used its more grandiose instrumental with its grounded message to suggest an all-encompassing, yet realistic love. It was one of the songs I felt best combined the energy of the instrumental with the lyrics.

The highlights of the album for me were “Dracula” and “Afterthought,” ironically enough. Both carried more of a classic Tame Impala sound, which at the very least is reliably catchy and danceable. “Dracula” benefitted from its pre-Halloween October release date but even on its own carries a Thriller-like campiness that sets it apart from its counterparts. “Afterthought,” however, delivered the Tame Impala sound most reliably, and was among the most upbeat and danceable. 

In addition, “Ethereal Connection” was a more club-inspired beat that was interesting conceptually; I only wish it had been more hard-hitting. “My Old Ways” was also quite catchy, but slightly unoriginal.

As a whole, the album was not bad; the songs all were pleasant to listen to and only pale in comparison to Tame Impala’s previous work, which admittedly contains staples of modern music. I enjoyed the more futuristic sound he provided; I just wish the listening experience was more notable. The album experience as a whole really highlights the sameness of the songs, but it would be amiss to say it should be an album completely skipped by longtime Tame Impala fans. 

Overall Rating: 6/10