The Slow Rush is the fourth studio album by Tame Impala, the musical project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker.

[16] Kevin Parker said that his biggest takeaway from making both the previous Tame Impala album, 2015's Currents, and The Slow Rush was to trust his gut instincts.

"[17] In an interview with Billboard, Parker said he was inspired by the career trajectory of "super-producer" Max Martin and that he wants to gradually break into the world of pop music.

"[17] While writing songs for the album in 2018 in Los Angeles, California, Parker had to flee a house in Malibu that he had rented on Airbnb due to widespread wildfires.

[20] The video features Parker in the recording studio as well as snippets of unreleased music, which would later be included on the album as segments of the track "Tomorrow's Dust".

"[23] The Slow Rush was called "an extraordinarily detailed opus" that reaches into "specific corners of the past six decades": Philly soul, early prog, acid house, adult contemporary-R&B, and even Late Registration.

[22][24] NPR noted: "Listen closely and you can pick up traces of Rick James, Paul McCartney and Wings, Ravel, Childish Gambino, Pink Floyd, Human League, Prince and on and on.

[18] The tone of the album is established on the "moody" space pop opening track "One More Year", called "Parker's most intimate song to date", featuring a steady beat, glitchy loops, a robotic chorus, and a tremolo effect.

[22][24] The funky/riffy and Jimmy Page-like "Breathe Deeper" "flits" between ravey pianos and '80s Fleetwood Mac – "with a touch of Daft Punk's 'Da Funk' thrown in the song's final 90 seconds".

[18] "One More Hour" is bare and "drowning in echo", full of fluttering strings and an "apocalyptic, heavily phased guitar, then another gnarly riff, crashing drums, and Moog synths firing in all directions.

[18] Many of the tunes on The Slow Rush have a "multi-level dimensionality": the melodies "dwell in a sweet, idyllic late-afternoon mood" that can veil the "internal turbulence, doubt and emotional complexity lurking in the words".

[23] Parker reflects on the power of nostalgia ("Lost in Yesterday") and the fear of losing his mojo ("It Might Be Time"), while the spindly "Tomorrow's Dust" is a "slap round the face" in the favour of progress: "There's no use tryin' to relate to that old song".

Jillian Mapes of Pitchfork wrote that "The Slow Rush is an extraordinarily detailed opus whose influences reach into specific corners of the past six decades.

"[36][27] NPR writer Tom Moon added: "While everybody else in the catchy-song business seems to be running in circles, [Parker's] out there unapologetically having fun, creating new delivery systems for his own exotic brand of sonic euphoria.

Club, Max Freedman gave the album a C+ and wrote that it "isn't quite as interesting as its predecessors in terms of songwriting and production, and this gap makes Parker's lyrical weaknesses more challenging to ignore".