Kevin Parker and company return with first single in two years, a glimpse into the sound on the follow-up to 2020’s The Slow Rush
Tame Impala hint at their “new era” with the single “End of Summer,” the Kevin Parker-fronted outfit’s first new song in two years.
Parker stated that the band’s follow-up to 2020’s The Slow Rush would be “kind of a future primitive rave act,” and the seven-minute “End of Summer,” Tame Impala’s first release via their new label Columbia Records, honors that promise with a track that is dancefloor-focused and seasonally timed.
“A new era begins. This is the first thing I want you guys to hear. I give you End Of Summer,” Parker wrote of the track — which was accompanied by an even-longer Julian Klincewicz-directed visual — on social media. “As is tradition, go and find your favorite sound system. The video was shot in a place even dustier than my drum sounds. Hope you like it. Off we goooooo.”
Parker first debuted “End of Summer,” fittingly, during a DJ set at a Barcelona dance club back in June. “Do you guys want to hear a new Tame Impala song?” Parker asked before previewing the track to clubgoers.
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“End of Summer” marks Tame Impala’s first new track since 2023, when Parker dropped songs on the soundtracks for Barbie (“Journey to the Real World”) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (“Wings of Time“). Parker remained busy outside the outfit, however, serving as a producer on Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism and collaborating with Justice, a pair of dance projects that now seem to foreshadow Tame Impala’s current musical direction.
It’s currently unclear whether “End of Summer” is a one-off single previewing their new sound or the first track off Tame Impala’s upcoming album; prior to The Slow Rush, Tame Impala released the single “Patience,” which ultimately was not included on the LP.