Album Review: Sympathy for Life by Parquet Courts
Parquet Courts
Release Date: October 22, 2021
Label: Rough Trade
Writing for The New York Times, Jonah Weiner conjectured that "when you're 15, or thereabouts, you love the art you love more passionately than you'll ever love art again." Interestingly enough, that was precisely the age at which I discovered Parquet Courts. It was right around the release of Sunbathing Animal, and I was a freshman in high school. I was young and naive. I had no idea what "indie" music was. All I knew was that beneath the monotone vocals, dynamic rhythm section, and intricate, sometimes abrasive guitar riffs of "Dear Ramona", "Black and White", and "Ducking and Dodging", I could feel something indescribably, intangibly special. To this day, I still can't quite put my finger on it, but the sensation only grows stronger with each passing release.
My obsession grew such that 2018's Wide Awake! became somewhat of a personal fascination of at times indelible proportions. Some might call it hedonistic—or even insane—but for me the album serves as a constant reminder of the importance of individuality, unconditional self-acceptance, eternal optimism, and above all the transformative power of music. So, it goes without saying that I was tickled pink to learn of a new full-length from the group. Of course, this also means that I went in just a little bit biased. As my friend said to me, Parquet Courts could've put out 45 minutes of silence and I would have declared it the best new record of 2021. But they didn't, and I've gotta say Sympathy for Life is pretty damn good.
Parquet Courts, from left-to-right: Sean Yeaton, Austin Brown, Andrew Savage, Max Savage. (PC: NME)
Parquet Courts are a band whose sound is constantly evolving, never to be tied down by burdensome tradition or wanton categorization. As such, their music is gracefully reactionary, a true product of the circumstances in which it was created: just look at the optimism, trepidation, and outrage of Wide Awake! or the pensivity, introspection, and melancholy of Human Performance. Naturally, this latest release is no different, offering a seemingly chasmal diversion from the brazen, unapologetic post-punk that pervaded much of their earlier work. From beginning to end, the tracks are wrought with welcome unpredictability amidst unprecedented density and spaciousness, drawing as much influence from Television's Marquee Moon as the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. In this way, Sympathy for Life serves as Parquet Courts' most audacious, intensive, and curiously engaging record to date, if not their most approachable. (It's no wonder Andrew Savage drew comparisons to "Tubthumping", the unlikely radio-ready bar anthem from anarchist proto-punks Chumbawamba, in an interview with Anthony Fantano.)
Parquet Courts are a band whose sound is constantly evolving, never to be tied down by burdensome tradition or wanton categorization.
Parquet Courts have always been the contemporary paradigm of a politically engaged and musically adventurous artist, yet Sympathy for Life pushes the standard even further. Savage's and Brown's lyrical wit and wisdom are still at full force, but messaging comes less from their penned manifestos and more from the sonic landscape itself. Take "Marathon of Anger", for instance. Lines like "This city has changed as the kettle got tighter / We changed our shape and shot the truth up like a cure" capture the frustration, reflection, and mobilization of the Black Lives Matter protests; however, it is the palpable tension in the hauntingly austere electronic backdrop that truly propels the narrative forward.
In the words of Austin Brown, “Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party. Sympathy for Life is influenced by the party itself." Accordingly, we find the Brooklyn quartet trading guitars and snares for bongos, keyboards, and synths to create an album that instinctively inspires a flight to the nearest club to shimmy, shake, swing, and ultimately just get down with your bad self. It is impossible to listen without instinctively moving, grooving, and bobbing along in sync. As such, the record truly feels like an extrication from the sedentary, an excuse for long-deprived social interaction, an escape from the prosaic digital hellscape that has become daily life.
While the group originally experimented with dance sensibilities on the eponymous "Wide Awake", this latest release sees them fully embracing the power of the "Groove" with a capital "G". The entire album is just plain funky, defined by extended jams and disco polyrhythms from all manner of provenance. "Plant Life" recalls the tight, relentless groove of James Brown's iconic "Funky Drummer", albeit with more than a hint of the Talking Heads' "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)". The title track's central beat channels the unmistakable shopping cart- and plastic bucket-derived urban paeans of street-drumming. "Walking at a Downtown Pace" projects Sly & the Family Stone's egalitarian and bohemian vision, concurrently believing that liberation universally comes from just "dancing to the music." However, make no mistake, Parquet Courts still know how to headbang. "Homo Sapien" evokes the moshability of early punk rippers like "Borrowed Time" and "Light Up Gold II", and "Black Widow Spider" provides what is perhaps their most raw and powerful riff yet.
Catch the Daniel Arnold-directed official music video for “Walking at a Downtown Pace”.
Sympathy for Life's funk modernism, which deftly blends pleasure and social conscience, provides the perfect soundtrack of the times. Importantly, its commentary-kneaded grooves represent perhaps the first time that an album from the group can be altogether considered "accessible". In this way, it demonstrates an inherent understanding that the key to proactive, effective expression sometimes comes from stepping down off the soapbox and fostering a sense of community in the most natural sense. Parquet Courts have undeniably had a profound and indelible impact on the ethos and aesthetics of modern post-punk, yet it is this latest release that easily cements them as one of the most innovative and—most importantly—perceptive artists of the twenty-first century.