The Less I Know the Better

"The Less I Know the Better"
Single by Tame Impala
from the album Currents
Released 29 November 2015 (2015-11-29)[1]
Format Digital download
Recorded Kevin Parker's home studio
(Fremantle, Western Australia)
Genre
Length 3:38
Label
Writer(s) Kevin Parker
Producer(s) Kevin Parker
Tame Impala singles chronology
"Eventually"
(2015)		 "'The Less I Know the Better"
(2015)

"The Less I Know the Better" is a song by Australian psychedelic rock act Tame Impala. It was released on 29 November 2015 as the third single from the group's third studio album Currents. The song's accompanying music video takes place in a high school, where a basketball player suffers a broken heart.

The song peaked at number 23 on the Belgian Flanders singles chart, number 66 on the ARIA Singles Chart and number 195 on the French Singles Chart. In the U.S., the song charted at number 36 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart.

Background

Parker stated that "The Less I Know the Better" originated from his love of disco:

“ 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. I don't know why, but I've been obsessed with disco for the last year or two.[4] ”

According to Parker, recording the song became obsessive. He recalled performing over 1,057 partial vocal takes for either "The Less I Know the Better" or the album's second single, "'Cause I'm a Man", though he could not recall which.[5]

Music video

A music video for the song was uploaded on 26 November 2015 to the group's Vevo channel. The video follows a high school basketball player in love with a cheerleader, who soon begins a relationship with the team's gorilla mascot (named Trevor).[6] Lars Brandle of Billboard described it thusly: "the clip is a strange tale of high school lust and jealousy (and King Kong) played out in a technicolor trip." The clip was filmed by the Spanish creative collective and directors Canada.[7]

Charts

Chart (2015–16) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[8] 66
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[9] 23
Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia)[10] 8
France (SNEP)[11] 195
US Hot Rock Songs (Billboard)[12] 35

References

  1. ↑ "Tame Impala - "The Less I Know The Better"". Interscope Records. Archived from the original on February 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ The following sources refer to the song as disco:
  3. ↑ Kane, Siobhan (27 July 2015). "Album of the week: Tame Impala: Currents". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Matt Fink (April 2015). "Tame Impala: The Ocean Inside". Under the Radar (Digital Edition) (53). pp. 103–105.
  5. ↑ "Kevin Parker tells us 11 amazing insights about Tame Impala's Currents". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Matthew Strauss (26 November 2015). "Tame Impala Share "The Less I Know the Better" Video". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Lars Brandle (27 November 2015). "Tame Impala Share "The Less I Know the Better" Video". Billboard. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (6 February 2016). "ARIA Singles: Zayn 'Pillowtalk' Is No 1". Noise11. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  11. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "Tame Impala – Chart history" Billboard Hot Rock Songs for Tame Impala. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
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