"Yes, I'm changing," Kevin Parker sweetly serenades the critics, haters, and trolls, "Yes, I'm gone / Yes, I'm older / Yes, I'm moving on / And if you don't think it's a crime / you can come along with me / Life is moving / can't you see?"
The most talented musicians in the world adapt. They don't find one sound and stick to it. They become restless, striving to create something that makes their ears ring anew.
Vampire Weekend completely departed from its upbeat and poppy sound and made their best album to date centered on death and dark subjects. Arctic Monkeys did something similar. Kendrick Lamar's release this year sounded almost nothing like his prior classic album, but it was Lamar adapting to his life, circumstances, and influences, and responding in his own way. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon recently said in an interview (I'm somewhat paraphrasing) that the hardest thing about becoming a famous musician is losing sight that creating music should be for you. When you lose sight of that, you begin to create for others and lose a bit of identity and ownership as a creative. "It has to be real," Vernon said.
Luckily, Tame Impala's mastermind Kevin Parker keeps it real. Tame Impala's third album, Currents, is a wonderfully freeing musical expression and acknowledgement of adaptation for the sake of Parker and no others.
Read More