Deadbeat starts with Kevin Parker’s mewling, high-pitched voice over the kind of loosely flowing piano chords Britt Daniel might write, sounding lo-fi enough that it could have been recorded directly into his phone. About a minute in, he cues up a syncopated disco-house groove built for strutting. More layers of synths, percussion, and vocals pile on, all while that steady four-on-the-floor thud persists. Parker spends the whole song singing about descending “back into my old ways again” — a good bit, since no Tame Impala song has ever sounded like this before.
