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.
“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.
