Alt Rock Autumn Day Seventeen: The Less I Know The Better By Tame Impala

Day Seventeen.

Yesterday for day sixteen, I covered one of my favorite acoustic songs of all time, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus. Just a complete change of pace that is quite beautiful. Now today for day seventeen, I’ll be looking at Tame Impalas most well known song.

Today, I’m covering The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala.

The Less I Know The Better dropped on July 17, 2015 as the seventh song from the bands third studio album. It later released as a single on November 29, 2015. It has a very futuristic psychedelic rock vibe that is so pleasant to listen to when you’re relaxing or need background noise to study and or concentrate.

What’s interesting about Tame Impala is that it’s actually one guy who makes the music. Australian music genius Kevin Parker formed the one man band in 2007. Parker writes, records, and plays the instruments on all of Tame Impalas studio songs, but has a group of musicians who tour with him where he’ll just play the guitar and sing lead vocals.

The Less I Know The Better opens with a very distinct and memorable “ba, du, du, du, du, dun, dun, dun, dun, da, dun, da, dun, dun, dun, dun” which sounds like the mixture of synth and guitar. Parker described the song as not cheesy, but dorky. “That song originally I thought shouldn't be on a Tame Impala album, because it has this dorky, white disco funk. I wouldn't call it cheesy, but it's not trying to be too cool, because the lyrics are pretty dorky and the groove is pretty dorky. But at the same time, for me, I love that kind of music.”

Apparently The Less I Know The Better is about a bizarre high school relationship where a basketball player is lusting after a cheerleader who starts a relationship with the teams gorilla mascot, Trevor. Critics have described it as "a strange tale of high school lust and jealousy (and King Kong) played out in a technicolor trip." The music video plays a big part in that description because you’ll gather more of those clues from watching that, rather than listening to the song.

What’s tough about The Less I Know The Better is that the beat is so strong and entrancing that it drowns out the lyrics so you aren’t really able to hear them. Verse one opens with “Someone said they left together, I ran out the door to get her, She was holding hands with Trevor, Not the greatest feeling ever, Said, "Pull yourself together, You should try your luck with Heather”. Our basketball playing protagonist has been cucked by a dude in a gorilla costume. The girl he wants is more interested in fornicating with a furry suit and tells our protagonist that he should move onto someone else.

“Then I heard they slept together, Oh, the less I know the better, The less I know the better”. When you hear that they slept together, the title and lyrics of The Less I Know The Better makes a lot more sense. He doesn’t want to know about what his dream girl is doing with a mascot.

The chorus really breaks down the fourth wall. This isn’t an overly deep song once you read the lyrics; it’s a jealousy love song. “Oh, my love, Can't you see yourself by my side?, No surprise, When you're on his shoulder like every night, Oh, my love, Can't you see that you're on my mind?, Don't suppose you could, Convince your lover to change his mind, So goodbye”.

I almost feel like verse two is like a prequel to our protagonist losing the girl. “She said, "It's not now or never, Wait ten years, we'll be together", I said, "Better late than never, Just don't make me wait forever", Don't make me wait forever, Don't make me wait forever”. When I read that, it sounds like our protagonist once had a chance, but waited “forever” and didn’t strike while the iron was hot.

The outro/verse three is the conclusion where our protagonist doesn’t win. It’s the ultimate gut punch when he locks eyes with her “I was doing fine without ya, Till I saw your face, now I can't erase, Givin' in to all his bullshit, Is this what you want? Is this who you are?, I was doing fine without ya, Till I saw your eyes turn away from mine”. It’s as if the protagonist realizes once and for all that he’s not going to be with the girl and that’s how our story ends.

The Less I Know The Better peaked at number eight on the Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia) chart, hit twenty three on the Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders), and thirty five on the US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart between 2015 and 2016. The song is five time platinum in Australia after selling 350,000 records, four time platinum in the U.S. after selling 4,000,000 records, and two time platinum in Poland once it sold 100,000 records.