The Less I Know the Better

"The Less I Know the Better" is a song released by the Australian rock band Tame Impala on 29 November 2015 as the fourth and final single from their third studio album, Currents. The song's accompanying music video mixes hand-drawn animation with live action and takes place in a high school, especially the gym and locker room, where a male basketball player suffers a broken heart.

Not to be confused with The Less You Know, the Better.
"The Less I Know the Better"
Single by Tame Impala
from the album Currents
Released29 November 2015 (2015-11-29)[1]
RecordedKevin Parker's home studio
(Fremantle, Western Australia)
Genre
Length3:38
Label
Songwriter(s)Kevin Parker
Producer(s)Kevin Parker
Tame Impala singles chronology
"Eventually"
(2015)		 "The Less I Know the Better"
(2015)		 "Patience"
(2019)
Audio sample
  • file
  • help
Music video
"The Less I Know the Better" on YouTube

In 2016, 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 US, the song charted at number 35 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart.

The song, along with "Let It Happen", was one of two from Currents to reach the top five in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2015, ranking at number 4, whilst "Let It Happen" ranked at number 5.

It also topped Triple J's Hottest 100 of the 2010s in March 2020. The week after reaching #1 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of the 2010s, the song entered the ARIA Top 50 for the first time, charting 49 places higher than its previous peak of #66.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7]

Music video

The official music video for the song was uploaded on 29 November 2015 to the group's Vevo channel. The video follows a male high school basketball player lusting after a cheerleader, who soon begins a relationship with the team's gorilla mascot (named "Trevor", a reference to the lyric "She was holding hands with Trevor" in the song).[8] The music video was filmed by the Barcelona-based creative collective and directors known as Canada.[9] The two primary lovebirds in the video are played by Spanish actors: the cheerleader is portrayed by actress Laia Manzanares;[10] the basketball player by actor Albert Baró.[11]

Lars Brandle of Billboard described it as "a strange tale of high school lust and jealousy (and King Kong) played out in a technicolor trip", while Luke Saunders of Happy Mag called it a "seriously incredible experience".[12]

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[21] 4× Platinum 280,000
Canada (Music Canada)[22] Gold 40,000
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[23] Gold 45,000
Italy (FIMI)[24] Gold 35,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[25] Platinum 600,000
United States (RIAA)[26] 2× Platinum 2,000,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. "Tame Impala - "The Less I Know The Better"". Interscope Records. Archived from the original on 6 February 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. The following sources refer to the song as psychedelic pop:
  5. Bruce, Dave (21 March 2020). "Official ARIA Charts News for 23-29 March 2020". Amnplify. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  6. Matt Fink (April 2015). "Tame Impala: The Ocean Inside". Under the Radar (Digital Edition) (53). pp. 103–105.
  7. "Kevin Parker tells us 11 amazing insights about Tame Impala's Currents". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  8. Matthew Strauss (26 November 2015). "Tame Impala Share "The Less I Know the Better" Video". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  9. Lars Brandle (27 November 2015). "Tame Impala Share "The Less I Know the Better" Video". Billboard. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  10. "The 113 best songs of the past decade, ranked". Insider.
  11. Albert Baró, ruthfranco
  12. Saunders, Luke (5 October 2019). "Most psychedelic sensory overload music videos on Youtube". Happy Mag. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  13. Ryan, Gavin (6 February 2016). "ARIA Singles: Zayn 'Pillowtalk' Is No 1". Noise11. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  14. "Ultratop.be – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  15. "Ultratop.be – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  16. "Lescharts.com – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  17. "Tame Impala Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  18. "Australian-charts.com – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  19. "Hot Rock Songs – Year-End 2016". Billboard. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  20. "ARIA Top 100 Singles for 2020". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  21. "ARIA Accreditations 2020". ARIA. January 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  22. "Canadian single certifications – Tame Impala – The Less I Know The Better". Music Canada. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  23. "Danish single certifications – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better". IFPI Denmark. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  24. "Italian single certifications – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved October 26, 2020. Select "2020" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Select "The Less I Know the Better" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli online" under "Sezione".
  25. "British single certifications – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 22 May 2020. Select singles in the Format field. Select Platinum in the Certification field. Type The Less I Know the Better in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  26. "American single certifications – Tame Impala – The Less I Know the Better". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 12 March 2020. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH. 
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