Meaning of “Patience” by Tame Impala

As the title implies, “Patience” is a song about the passage of time and Tame Impala’s outlook towards this inevitable reality. The narrator (Tame Impala’s frontman Kevin Parker) is analyzing how the days have progressed for him and the band as well as making listeners privy to how he generally feels about the future.

The track begins with Parker acknowledging that the band has been on hiatus (in terms of releasing new material) since 2015. As such, the question arises as to whether or not they have actually made progress during that time. Indeed he states that people regularly ask him what he is now doing considering the success that he has already achieved. And his response to such people is that he is still very much on the grind, although apparently in their eyes it does not appear as such.

In other words, he is just living his life and progressing in gradual stages. However, in general, it seems that he does not have a specific plan as to how to pass his days. And he acknowledges that such a disposition is not ideal, as in he should be making more of an effort to “fly straight” with the days he has been allotted, for time is not going to wait for him to get his sh*t together.

Putting it differently, on one hand Kevin seems content with the “phases” his life is going through. Yet on the other, he realizes that he is “running out of pages”, as in time to finish “growing up”. So to some extent, it is challenging to grasp the ultimate sentiment he is trying to relay through this song.

That being said, when combining the viewpoint of the track with its title and intended sound, one can conclude that Kevin and the boys are indeed cool with the way things are and rather than trying to accomplish all of their goals immediately are rather being patient.

Facts about “Patience”

• Kevin Parker both penned and produced “Patience” in its entirety.
• The band released this song via Modular Recordings on March 22, 2019.
• The March 2019 release of “Patience” marked the first time the band was releasing a single since 2015. Prior to “Patience”, the band’s last single was “The Less I Know the Better”. 
• Throughout the lyrics of this song, nowhere does the word or rather the song’s title “patience” appear. Simply put, Parker doesn’t use the title in the lyrics.

Which Tame Impala album does “Patience” appear on?

This song will appear on the band’s fourth studio album. As of March 26, 2019 (the date of the publication of this post), neither the album’s name nor its release date has been revealed by Tame Impala.