Background
While promoting his previous album The Slow Rush in a February 2020 interview, Parker mentioned that the next record would not take as long, saying that he has a "flourish of ideas". [6] In February 2022, he reconfirmed in an interview that he'll have "another Tame Impala album done sooner than what has been the pattern for me". [7] According to Parker, he started working on Deadbeat around 2023. [8] In March 2024, he posted a picture of himself in his recording studio with the caption "don't worry" hinting at his next album. [9] On 13 July 2025, he posted a picture on his Instagram showing a school board with thirteen tracks listed up in a table format. [10]
Ahead of the album's announcement, Parker completed sessions in Fremantle and at his Wave House studio in Injidup, Western Australia. [11] Statements promoting the album describe it as "deeply inspired by bush doof culture and the Western Australia rave scene." [12]
Tame Impala formally announced Deadbeat on 4 September 2025, [13] [12] following the release of the album's second single, "Loser," the day before. [11] The album was released worldwide on 17 October 2025 through Columbia Records. [14]
Singles
On 18 July 2025, an unnamed 12-inch vinyl listing appeared on the Tame Impala webstore for pre-order. The release was later revealed to be the physical edition of "End of Summer" and "Ethereal Connection", issued on 25 July 2025. Parker had first performed the song during a DJ set in Barcelona in early June 2025. [15]
The second single, "Loser", was teased when streaming service metadata for "End of Summer" briefly displayed fields replaced with the title "Loser". [2] Posters advertising a 3 September release date subsequently appeared in several cities, including Los Angeles and New York City. "Loser" was released on 3 September 2025 alongside a music video featuring actor-musician Joe Keery.
The third single, "Dracula", was released on 26 September 2025 following teasers on social media. [16] Parker described the track as one of the defining moments of the Deadbeat era. [17] [18] "Dracula" was written by Parker in collaboration with Sarah Aarons and produced by Parker, with a music video directed by Julian Klincewicz. [18]
The fourth single, "My Old Ways", was teased on social media alongside his music video with a caption that included lyrics of the song, "Powerless as I descend, back into my old ways again". [19] "My Old Ways" was released on 17 October 2025, written and produced by Parker.
Critical reception
Deadbeat polarised critics and audiences upon release, receiving both praise and ambivalence leaning towards unfavourability. According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Deadbeat received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 from twelve critic scores. [21] The review aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave Deadbeat a weighted average score of 5.9 out of 10 from sixteen critic scores. [20]
Writing for The Guardian , Alexis Petridis noted Parker's "preponderance of banging four-four beats", and praised the album's production and experimentation, giving it four out of five stars. Petridis argued some of Parker's songs would have been better as instrumentals, such as "Afterthought", the impact of which "feels reduced by the pop melody he’s placed on top of it". He noted thematic pessimism, with the dance and house influence being mirrored in the "unsettled and disrupted tone" of the lyrics. Petridis praised the closing track "End of Summer" as hitting "an enviable sweet spot between dancefloor euphoria and rainwashed sadness", if minimised by its vocal hook. Overall, Petridis praised the "occasionally confused" album as simultaneously "painfully honest" and "genuinely wracked". [33] Other four star reviews came from The Times , The Independent , and New Noise Magazine. [34]
In a 6.5 out of 10 scored review, KTLA reporter Russell Falcon opined the album captured elements of chillwave more than dance, writing that given that artists like Washed Out and, more recently, S.G. Lewis have managed to work within the genre's aesthetic "without sounding anonymous or reserved," Parker's soundscape only "almost works." Falcon highlighted "Piece of Heaven" and "Ethereal Connection" as the album's most successful cuts. [35]
Sam Goldner of Pitchfork was critical of the album; he wrote that while Parker had previously been commended for his innovative production and ability to craft immersive "headphone music," Deadbeat marked a steep decline in artistic focus and originality. He described the album as "stale" and "exhausting," claiming that it lacks the sense of craft that had set Tame Impala's earlier work apart. He criticized Parker's exploration of dance music as underdeveloped, stating that he presented "one four-on-the-floor genre after another" without successfully justifying his move into those styles. He wrote that songs such as "Ethereal Connection", "Oblivion" and "Piece of Heaven" felt uninspired, ultimately describing the album as a "daisy-chain of shaky half-measures" and a "sad spectacle". [29]
Karan Singh of Clash also gave the album a negative review, writing that it relies on devout fans who unconditionally believe in Parker despite an "identity crisis" that has left him confused about what to publish under the Tame Impala moniker. He also noted that "the potential obscured by its cumbersome inexactness does occasionally surface, only to vanish right before it amounts to something worth writing home about." He singled out "No Reply", "Oblivion" and "Afterthought" as unsuccessful attempts at ambient house, while also criticizing the "plodding continuance" of "Ethereal Connection" and mismatching ingredients of "Obsolete". [36]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
