Parquet Courts
Sunbathing Animal
Reviewed by: Brian Roser
When I review a band, I try to find something about them that I like, but Parquet Courts is not giving me much to work with. Sunbathing Animal is their second full-length album, but it is not even polished enough for a debut. The singing is off-key, the lyrics are overly repetitive and the guitar solo on the first track, “Bodies Made Of”, is just painful. The vocals sometimes rise to shouting, but for all the volume, they still lack heart and conviction. When they slow things down in “Dear Ramona” it is obvious they are out of their element. There is so much distortion on the album that I started to wonder if it was intentional, or if they just never tuned their instruments.
The band formed in Brooklyn in 2010. Parquet Courts consists of the Savage brothers (Andrew on vocals and guitar and Max on drums), Austin Brown, also on vocals and guitar and Sean Yeaton on bass. Despite being based in New York, the members are all from Texas where they developed a love, if not proficiency with music.
They are often dubbed as ‘slacker rock’, a term they don’t seem to like. They are putting in hard work by playing as many venues as they can. They are on tour this summer from San Francisco to Berlin, Germany and yes that takes time to put together, but I think that time would be better spent practicing and learning their craft.
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