Spotify listeners have “Let It Happen” a billion times and counting. “Let It Happen,” the leadoff track from Tame Impala’s 2015 classic Currents, has joined the Spotify Billions Club, having surpassed a billion plays on the platform. It’s Tame Impala’s third song in the Billions Club following “The Less I Know The Better” and “Borderline.”
When it debuted in the spring of 2015, “Let It Happen” was a transformative moment for Tame Impala, marking Kevin Parker’s boldest foray yet into electronics after building up a reputation as his generation’s leading psych-rock act. “From its sweeping grandeur to its lysergic, Lennon-esque vocal melodies, Currents’ opening track and lead single was unmistakably Tame Impala,” wrote Stereogum’s Chris DeVille in a 10th anniversary retrospective. “Yet by the time those laser-light-show synths kicked in after the second chorus, dancing atop the mix as if conducted by God himself, it was clear this was the sound of Parker plunging into a new reality.”
In a 2015 interview with Under The Radar, Parker described the making of “Let It Happen,” explaining that it coalesced gradually during his worldwide travels. “I think most of that song was put together at different times, when I was on tour, actually,” Parker said. “I remember it came to me, I think I was walking to my hotel room in Oklahoma. And then the chorus, I was at a festival in Hungary or Turkey. And then the midsection, the jam bit, I was on a train. That’s a bit looping and a weird repetitive thing going on, and I had my laptop on a train in France, going to Toulouse. I think with that song, one thing led to another. I was just jamming by myself in the way I do, and I put it on a loop to see what sounds cool. I just see where it takes me.”
“Let It Happen” was instantly received as a masterpiece in its time. Publications including Spin, Consequence Of Sound, The Fader, Time, Paste, and Pitchfork all ranked it among the top 10 songs of the year. At home in Australia, the song came in at No. 5 on national radio station Triple J’s year-end Hottest 100 countdown and was nominated for Best Pop Release at the 2015 ARIA Music Awards. Its entry into the Billions Club demonstrates its continued resonance more than a decade later, as Tame Impala achieves unprecedented chart success with the Hot 100 No. 5 hit “Dracula.”
Shop Tame Impala’s Currents here.
