Format Digital download
12" Label Modular | Length 3:31 | |
Released 25 July 2012 (2012-07-25) Genre Psychedelic rock
garage rock
alternative rock Writer(s) Kevin Parker
Jay Watson | ||
"Elephant" is a song by Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala. It was released as a single from their second album Lonerism on 26 July 2012.
Contents
Background
Kevin Parker explains that:
Elephant is actually one of the oldest songs that I have, it's just been in the vaults this whole time. I'm not sure why we never recorded it before, but we were just playing it at a sound check one night and everyone in the band was like, 'We should just put this on the album', and so we did.
"Elephant" features a bluesier side of Tame Impala, heard more frequently on their EP, as the song was written around that stage. Because it was written around that time, "Elephant" is "an anomaly on Lonerism. There are no other songs that have that bluesy riffing".
Critical reception
Nathan Reese of Refinery29 described the song as the group's "meaner, more immediate take on its garage-psych sound". He also commented that the song "with dueling keyboard and guitar solos that arrive midway through" resembles Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam", "channeled through the Stooges". J Arthur Bloom from Tiny Mix Tapes regarded the song as "the most psychologically revealing song on the album", expressing that Kevin Parker's "stoner insouciance goes well with the garage rock, White Stripes-y groove". Joe Levy from Rolling Stone stated that the song was "Tame Impala's 2012 alt-rock hit", describing the guitar riff as "gong-banging glam".
Awards
TV/Film appearances
"Elephant" has a number of appearances in television and film, including: