Currents is the third studio album by Australian musical project Tame Impala, released on 17 July 2015 by Modular Recordings.

After the release of his previous album, Lonerism (2012), Parker began work on Currents, largely recording at his home studio in Fremantle.

He engrossed himself with writing and recording, and in keeping with his reputation as a musical auteur, laboured over the details of each song, ultimately causing the release date to be delayed by two months.

In contrast to the psychedelic rock sound of the project's prior work, Currents marks a shift to more dance-oriented music, with more emphasis placed on synthesisers than guitars.

Parker was inspired to seek a change out of desire to hear Tame Impala's music played in dance clubs and a more communal setting.

[7] The group, fronted by musician Kevin Parker, released two albums that received adoration from music critics: Innerspeaker (2010) and Lonerism (2012).

[10] In between Tame Impala releases, Parker founded the space disco band AAA Aardvark Getdown Services.

[13][15] At some point, Parker broke up with his girlfriend, French singer-songwriter Melody Prochet, and moved from Paris back to his hometown of Perth.

"[17] Currents was recorded, produced, and mixed by Kevin Parker at his beachside home studio in Fremantle, Western Australia.

[18] The two-room studio contained a minimal amount of equipment: "a ramshackle drum kit, a guitar covered in duct tape and some battered vintage synths.

[8][10] He hoped to deviate from the creative process by which he created Lonerism, which he described as torturous, but ultimately found himself "falling down completely the same hole again" on Currents.

"[20] Currents features styles of psychedelic pop,[28] disco,[29] R&B,[30] and electropop,[31] but the album's chord progressions and rhythms are most indebted to R&B.

[15] His vocals are clearer and less affected than in prior Tame Impala releases,[18] which is partially owed to him having more pride in his lyrics; he said he hoped it would be easy for listeners to understand them.

[16] Parker considered the primary theme of the album to be a "deep feeling of transition in your psyche," or, in a broad sense, fully entering adulthood.

"[42] "'Cause I'm a Man" attracted controversy upon its release due to perceived sexism in its lyrics, but Parker meant the opposite: "The song is about how weak men are basically, and how we make all these excuses.

"[40] Barbadian singer and songwriter Rihanna covered the track for her eighth studio album Anti (2016) under the title "Same Ol' Mistakes".

[43] It consists of Tame Impala's instrumental, extended to a length of 6 minutes and 35 seconds, with Rihanna's vocal replacing Parker's.

"[45] Beatty referenced the works of Franco Grignani, Zdeněk Ziegler, and Karel Vaca when creating the cover art.

[49] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork gave the album a "Best New Music" designation, saying, "Nearly every proper song on Currents is a revelatory statement of Parker's range and increasing expertise as a producer, arranger, songwriter, and vocalist while maintaining the essence of Tame Impala".

Cohen compared the record to others such as Loveless, Kid A, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, writing, "it's the result of a supernaturally talented obsessive trying to perfect music while redefining their relationship to album-oriented rock.

"[37] Spin's Harley Brown called it "the purest – and most complex – distillation of everything that makes the band such a nearly physical pleasure to listen to".

Brown added, "The real magic of Currents, though, is in how Parker so effectively (and genuinely, for the most part) manipulates the listener's emotions without necessarily revealing any himself.

"[53] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote "A lot of the album's power and strangeness comes from the way [the lyrics] cut against the lusciousness of the arrangements... and the loveliness of the melodies."

He praised Parker for creating psychedelia by leaving the listener "simultaneously baffled and intrigued", rather than resorting to clichéd psychedelic music effects.

[38] Darren Levin of Rolling Stone Australia said "the first thing that really strikes you about Currents is how hi-fi it actually is", and that after listening to the opening track, "you really do get the feeling you're watching one of rock's most restlessly creative minds at work".

"[58] Andy Gill of The Independent said, "while copious application of phasing offers a link to Tame Impala's psychedelic roots, the absence of guitar wig-outs may disappoint some fans".

Q named Currents the year's top album, saying that "Parker added dancefloor pop to their kaleidoscopic sound" while calling it "sonically advanced and filled with great songs".

The magazine said the album finds Parker "coming to the epiphany that no amount of pitch- and time-shifting will screw with your perception of reality as much as a lyric that's as direct and true as 'They say people never change but that's bullshit / They do.

[61] Pitchfork ranked the album as the year's fifth-best, saying, "There's still a bit of Parker's elegant guitar here, but he's mostly rerouted his perfectionistic craftsmanship to synthesizer tones and drum programming.

"[63] Rolling Stone placed the album at number 13 on its list of the "50 Best Albums of 2015", writing that Parker's "musical rethink... is expansive, resulting in wide-screen adventures like 'Let It Happen'" and that the record is "full of weightless vocals and synthesized funk, for a set that's both blissed-out and mournful, like a set of diary entries from an astronaut floating off into oblivion".