Tame Impala have released their second single of the year.
Teased last week with street posters confirming its release date, “Loser” is most notable for its accompanying music video. Directed by Sam Kristofski, the clip stars Stranger Things actor Joe Keery, otherwise known as musician Djo.
Kerry looks forlorn in the music video, seemingly dumped by a love interest who drives off in a huff, and hangs out at a Los Angeles convenience store called Bob’s Market. He grabs a drink, sits outside, and wonders where it all went wrong. For a brief moment, Kerry is replaced by Kevin Parker, wearing the same clothes and facial expression. Watch in full below.
“Loser” follows comeback single “End of Summer”, which dropped at the end of July after a similar period of teasers across socials.
“End of Summer” was Parker’s band’s first new music since 2020 album The Slow Rush. It was also Tame Impala’s first recording for new label Columbia Records.
Whereas “Loser” is funk-laden psych-pop, “End of Summer” pushed Tame Impala’s sound into deeper dance territory than ever before, harkening back to the acid house of the late ’80s and early ’90s.
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It’s currently unclear if “Loser” and “End of Summer” will lead a new Tame Impala album, although it’s more than likely. Another recent social media post, with the simple caption “been busy,” teased as much, showing Parker in a variety of recording spaces, DJ sets, and more. The most teasing part, though, was the final image in the carousel, which showed a recording progress chart.
It’s been five years since their last record, The Slow Rush, won five ARIA Awards and earned multiple Grammy nominations.
In other band news, Tame Impala will perform a DJ set at Justice’s upcoming Australian arena shows this December.
The French duo recently took home the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for “Neverender”, which featured Parker — though their creative relationship stretches back much further than that.
“We found out about Tame Impala in the late 2000s,” Justice told Rolling Stone AU/NZ recently. “When we were coming to Australia, we used to hang with the people at Modular.” A pre-release copy of “Elephant” landed in their inboxes ahead of Lonerism’s 2012 release, with an offer to remix the track. “Without exaggeration, we were blown away,” they added. “It was such a perfect track that we told the label, ‘Sorry we can’t do this, we’re only going to make it worse.’”
Tame Impala’s “Loser” is out now.
