Review Summary: no bootyshake this time 😥
Parquet Courts have always crafted albums as counterpoints to their very preceding record; guess what?
Sympathy for Life is no exception, as co-frontman Austin Brown stated that
Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party while
Sympathy for Life is influenced by the party itself.
Seems like he ain't referring to the same party.
The group's apparent intent with this newest record of theirs was to capture a club's vibe. That's cool, but Parquet Courts are a gig band, not club bangercrafters - and it shows in
Sympathy for Life's most evident influences, like
Remain In Light-days Talking Heads. "Plant Life" is basically a David Byrne song with its afrobeat percussion and groovy bass lines - sounds cool innit? It
sounds cool, yes, but it unfortunately ain't, with Parquet Courts falling into the dangerous trap of not committing enough to their new aesthetic.
Sympathy for Life manages to be both groovy and lackluster. Songs that do not depart from past formulas
almost succeed but ultimately fail to truly leave a lasting impression; "Zoom Out" and "Homo Sapien" are very much fine in and of themselves, but they are not expanding the band's already large soundscape. Likewise, the stoner tunes like "Just Shadows" lack the energy that made "Stoned and Starving" a certified weed bop. Attempts at new sounds also do not land as smoothly as intended. Built out of lengthy jam sessions and abandoning conventional structures, tracks like "Plant Life" or "Marathon Of Anger" are trading verse and choruses to a layering of sounds that's as repetitive as it is minimalistic, yet they lack the trance effect that is so important for repetition to work. This is more than likely due to the record's creation process: condensing what once was an extended dancefloor mix into a three-minute song makes the band juggle awkwardly with the initial experimentation and the intensity needed to transform said experimentation into a bonafide banger. When thou wanna come up with a dancey album, thou shall not forget to bring the
f u n - who the feck dances with a stoic figure? Groove might be present at times - the opener's basslines or the title track are just full of it thanks to Max Savage's drums and Sean Yeaton's bass- but even then it does lack, uh, passion?
This also applies to the vocal delivery. Lyrically, this is Parquet Courts at its Parquet Courtesque, with only closer "Pulcinella" trading political diatribe for emotional maturity. Andrew Savage’s descriptions of the bleaker aspects of modern living are balanced with tongue-in-cheek punchlines - "What a time to be alive, a TV set in the fridge!" is a big yes in terms of absurd reflections about the modern world. However, cool lyrics lose power if the voice delivering them seems to be thinking about their grocery list. The often deadpan delivery - as on "Black Widow Spider" - does not help the record's repetitive nature to become of a foot-stomping quality - for a dance-punk record, that sucks. This might persist as
Sympathy for Life's most unnerving aspect: why so serious? Despite the grooviness, there remains very little of the wacky, chaotic, and basically fun vibe Parquet Courts have always provided. This also shows in the lack of conclusion within songs, the absence of climax dampening the slow power fueled by repetition (insert sex joke here).
You gotta pay respect to a band willing to continue pushing their sonic limits. Shame the result is only a half-step forward. Next time you gonna make me dance?
