"Expectation" is a song by Tame Impala, released as a single in 2010. It was recorded during the sessions for the Innerspeaker album in 2009, and released as the third single from that album. The single features artwork from Australian artist Leif Podhajsky, who also created the artwork for Innerspeaker and the follow-up Lonerism.

"Expectation" was written by Kevin Parker in the key of C major in a 6/4 time signature. It is based around the two repeating chords of Cmaj7 and Fmaj7.

The song starts off in a polymeter rhythm, with 3/4 on the drums, and 6/8 on the guitar, bass and keyboard. The vocals have reverb and delay applied to them, and the guitars are distorted through a flanger pedal. The verse features a slight call and response type effect where Parker's vocals come in over the top of the drums and bass, and then when the vocals stop they are replaced by the guitar over the top of the drums and bass. During the guitar sections in the verse, there is also a heavily flanged guitar low in the mix playing a melody in the F major scale.

Another verse comes in over the top of the pre-verse instrumental section. The pre-chorus is short and features an F5 power chord played on guitar to punctuate the lyrics. There is also a short bass fill, as well as a synth fill.

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