Released in 2014, Sunbathing Animal finds Parquet Courts taking the wiry, scrappy brilliance of Light Up Gold and pushing it somewhere sharper, stranger and more restless. The Brooklyn band’s combination of post-punk, garage rock and deadpan indie remains intact, but there’s a greater sense of purpose here, with jagged guitars, relentless rhythms and A. Savage’s wonderfully dry observations constantly pulling against one another.
 
From the frantic title track and the tightly wound ‘Black and White’ to the sprawling ‘Instant Disassembly’, Sunbathing Animal shifts between nervous energy and moments of unexpected space. There are echoes of Television, Pavement and The Velvet Underground throughout, but Parquet Courts never sound particularly interested in nostalgia. Instead, they turn those ingredients into something distinctly their own: cerebral, funny, abrasive and ridiculously alive.
One of the defining indie rock records of the 2010s and an essential stop in the Parquet Courts catalogue.
 
TRACKS:
Side A
Bodies Made Of
Black and White
Dear Ramona
What Color Is Blood
Vienna II
Always Back in Town
She’s Rolling
 
Side B
Sunbathing Animal
Up All Night
Instant Disassembly
Ducking and Dodging
Raw Milk
Into the Garden