"Lucidity" is a song by

Tame Impala Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker (musician), Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring a ...

, released as a single in 2010. It was recorded during the sessions for the ''

Innerspeaker ''Innerspeaker'' (sometimes stylised as ''InnerSpeaker'') is the debut studio album by Australian musical project Tame Impala, released on 21 May 2010 by Modular Recordings. The album was recorded and produced by musician Kevin Parker at a remote ...

'' album in 2009, and released as the second single from that album. The single features artwork from Australian artist

Leif Podhajsky Leif Podhajsky is an Australian graphic designer and art director, well known for his distinctive album art working with artists such as Tame Impala, Bonobo, Foals, Kylie Minogue, Of Monsters and Men, Lykke Li, Toy, The Horrors, Mount Kimbie, ...

, who also created the artwork for ''Innerspeaker'' and the follow-up ''

Lonerism ''Lonerism'' is the second studio album by Australian musical project Tame Impala, released on 5 October 2012 by Modular Recordings. Like the band's debut studio album, '' Innerspeaker'' (2010), ''Lonerism'' was written, recorded, performed, an ...

''. "Lucidity" came in at number 74 in the Triple J Hottest 100 in 2010.

Composition

"Lucidity" was written by Kevin Parker in the key of A major in a 4/4

time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...

. The

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse (poetry), a line or lines in a poetic composition * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but still re ...

s feature heavily

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

strum In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger or plectrum brushes over several strings to generate sound. On most stringed instrume ...

ming of the

chords Chord or chords may refer to: Art and music * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord, a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * The Chords (British band), 1970s British mod ...

E7sus4add9 and E major. The

pre-chorus Song structure is the arrangement of a song, and is a part of the songwriting process. It is typically section (music), sectional, which uses repeating forms in songs. Common piece-level musical forms for vocal music include bar form, thirty-two-ba ...

features a variation of the verse vocal

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

played on a fuzz guitar in the A major scale four times, before the verse rhythm plays one more time. The

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

then comes in with a

key change In music, modulation is the change from one tonality ( tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as ...

to G major, and a B major, Dmaj7, A major, G major barre

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

. After the chorus, it switches back to the key of A major and there is a short

arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...

from C major to D major chords to connect to the next verse. The second verse is half the length of the first one, and a short

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

in the A major scale comes in on the words "float away". The chorus, connecting

guitar lick In popular music genres such as country, blues, jazz or rock music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short series of notes used in solos and melodic lines and accompaniment. For musicians, learning a lick is usually a form ...

, pre-chorus, chorus format comes in at this point and then a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

occurs. The bridge switches to the key of G major again and features the chords F major, G major, A major and B major played at a slower

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

. The bridge fizzles out, then it switches back to the A major key, and a scorching fuzz guitar solo over the verse chords and rhythm comes in, with heavy unison bends and

whammy bar A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. It adds vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge or tailpiece of an electric guitar using a c ...

vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...

. The song then ends with fuzz pedal noise.

Recording

The instrumentals for "Lucidity" were recorded during the sessions for ''Innerspeaker'' in June to August 2009. The lyrics and vocals weren't recorded until the mixing stage of the album in December 2009, at

Dave Fridmann David Lawrence Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. Career From 1990 onwards he co-produced most releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips. Other bands he has worked with include Weezer, Saxon Shore (band), Saxon Shore, Neon ...

's Tarbox Road Studio in

Cassadaga, New York Cassadaga (a Seneca nation, Seneca Indian word meaning "water beneath the rocks") is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Chautauqua County, New York, Chautauqua County, New York (state), New York, United States. The village ...

, which Parker later recalled: "I was thinking, 'We're going to be mixing this song in the next six hours'. I hadn't done any vocals and I didn't have any lyrics; I was literally losing my brain. I'd stop, sit outside in the snow and try to think of lyrics."

Music video

The music video for "Lucidity" was directed by Robert Hales. The video was filmed with a camera attached to a

weather balloon A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind spe ...

outside of

Mildura Mildura ( ) is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 at the 2021 census. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point, Merbein and Red ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

. Parker starts the video by letting go of the camera attached to the weather balloon and letting it float away. The whole video is the same shot of the camera filming down below on a

bird's-eye view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective (graphical), perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downward. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photog ...

as it floats up into the sky. The balloon eventually exits the Earth's

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

and into space, where you can see the curvature of the Earth and some shots of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. The camera then comes crashing down back to Earth during the fuzz guitar solo section of the song. The video ends with an

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

coming to inspect the camera. Despite the fact that the band is only seen for a couple of seconds, the director got Tame Impala to mime the whole song. They had practiced the song for two days beforehand. Some shots of them miming the song can be seen in the

behind the scenes https://www Googlefinans.co= In filmmaking, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK ( ...

video.

Live performances

Live, Tame Impala play "Lucidity" two

semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...

s lower than the recorded version, switching to the keys of G major and F major, although in 2012 they have returned the song back to its originally recorded keys. "Lucidity" hasn't been a regular song in Tame Impala's

set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

, but has been played throughout 2010 and 2011, with many experiments with the structure of the song, with it sometimes played in an uptempo danceable fashion and sometimes featuring an almost

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

out ending during the bridge. Parker also experiments with different effects during the outro solo. In 2012 "Lucidity" was again added to Tame Impala's setlist.

Track listing

# "Lucidity" – 4:31 # "Lucidity ( Pilooski

Remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

) – 5:29

Personnel

* Kevin Parker – all vocals and instrumentation * Tansie Bennetts – hand claps

References

External links

* {{authority control 2010 songs 2010 singles Music videos directed by Robert Hales Tame Impala songs Song recordings produced by Kevin Parker Songs written by Kevin Parker (musician) Modular Recordings singles