I first heard Perth, Australia's Tame Impala late on a Saturday night in early September 2010, while laying in a tent at Fort Stevens, on the Pacific coast near Astoria, Oregon. It was a song called Expectation, and it was playing on a KMUN radio show called The Other Side. I recall the DJ started it off at a slower speed, so he had to start it over. I thought the song was psychedelically fantastic, and I went out and bought the Innerspeaker album asap.
Runway, Houses, City, Clouds is the longest song on the album. It fades in for the first 0:33, accelerating down the runway, then expands outward in shimmering light as the aircraft leaves the ground. Kevin Parker sings But don't remind me of home, there's everywhere I'd rather go. It's a song of uncertainty and loss of innocence, crossing a threshold into the great unknown. It's true that some things have to change, and it's natural to reflect on what may be left behind.
The music is drenched with reverb and phasing, raindrop guitar notes falling on my ears. The heavy drums are a herd of kangaroos bounding after the plane, saying 'we'll still be here, don't you forget about me, tell me your troubles and doubts.' Oops, that's another song.
At 2:42, we float through a cloud of layered vocals, all dreamy and soothing. A synthesizer comes in at 3:22, the contrails of the plane making long white streaks in the sky. Finally, at 4:20, the singer has drifted off to sleep and the pilot has the plane on cruise control for the final 2:53. At 5:23 a smooth Jimi Hendrix 'Drifting' guitar riff arrives to accompany us away across the ocean.
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