‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ is one of Tame Impala’s most pervasive songs and easily the most well-known number from Lonerism, but long before it became a modern Australian rock staple it was – like all songs – simply an idea that was thankfully captured as a modest audio sketch.
Fans now get to hear that original sonic kernel thanks to frontman Kevin Parker, who has shared the first recording of ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ in a Facebook post; “Going through some old shit… came across this!” writes the prolific producer and musician of the demo.
It’s short and rough but a fascinating listen. You can actually hear the 28-year-old wrestling with the melody and lyric as he coordinates a chord progression out of the dinky-sounding keyboard. We wish our old archives contained such rough gems…
For comparison’s sake, here’s the finished product.
Parker could be digging through his “old shit” in anticipation of writing some new shit.
A few months ago he dropped a similar surprise on Tame Impala’s social media accounts – an amazing cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Stranger In Moscow’ – an indication of the “next-level Thriller-pop” he’s been concocting lately, in the words of bandmate Jay Watson.
“Kevin’s been writing all these disco, Michael Jackson megahits that he wouldn’t use for Tame because he’d be too sheepish about it but I’m trying to convince him to,” Watson explained last March, just as Parker unveiled a new disco-funk side-project, AAA Aardvark Getdown Services, at a Perth Festival performance celebrating Perth management and label, Spinning Top.
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While Parker is busy working on new material for a follow-up to Tame Impala’s award-scooping, Grammy-nominated Lonerism, even using pizza analogies to describe the direction of his new material, Tame Impala’s associates are keeping themselves very busy following the launch of Spinning Top Records.
That includes Jay Watson’s debut solo release as Gum, Delorean Highway, Pond drummer Shiny Joe Ryan’s The Cosmic Microwave Background LP, plus forthcoming releases from Nick Allbrook and Cam Avery’s side-project, and Man, It Feels Like Space Again, the new album from Pond, one of our 25 most anticipated albums due to drop before year’s end.
