Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Rolling Stone

‘Posthumous Forgiveness‘, the third single from new Tame Impala album The Slow Rush, is finally here.

And Kevin Parker doesn’t hold back.

Tame’s mastermind already has a reputation as a heart-laid-bare songwriter but this one of his most confessional tracks to date.

“Ever since I was a small boy nobody compared to you,” Parker sings.

Here it appears Kev explores his relationship with his late father Jerry as well as the resentment and heartache of growing up in a broken home.

“Just a boy and a father what’d give for another.”

Jerry disagreed with Kevin’s desire to pursue music as a career, telling his son that while there was a chance he might make money, it would kill the mystery of his art.

Parker disagreed and the pair would never reconcile.

While Jerry saw some of Kevin’s earlier success, he passed away from cancer prior to the release of first Tame Impala album InnerSpeaker.

“You took your sorries to the grave,” Kevin mourns.

Moving into the song’s middle section, Parker brings the listener into the present, reflecting on his feeling of loss and the regret that his father could not have been there to witness his career.

“I wanna tell you ’bout the time,” he adds, “Wanna tell you ’bout my life, wanna play you all my songs…  And the time I had Mick Jagger on the phone, I thought of you when we spoke.” 

Anything more he simply wants him to be there to tell him about his life and hear his voice singing along to his songs.

Weaving together Parker’s inner child and his inner dialogue as an adult, there’s so much emotional complexity in this six minutes of music.

Musically the song channels some of the grandiosity of Currents’ ‘Let It Happen‘ albeit in the more subdued and minimalistic tone of other Slow Rush material fans have heard so far.

It also echoes stygian modes of songs like Led Zeppelin‘s ‘Kashmir‘.

It’s an exciting addition to The Slow Rush, which seems to be shaping up to be one of Parker’s most musically diverse and emotionally forthright albums to date.

The Slow Rush will arrive on February 14.