Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

Rough Trade

May 18th, 2018.

Parquet Courts exercise their scepticism on the bands sixth studio album 'Wide Awake!'. Maybe the album that fans always knew they had in them - in one way or another, but not necessarily the high-gloss and perfectly produced manner - Wide Awake! feels like the breakthrough record that was always - possibly, hopefully - on the horizon.

One of the finest indie/punk rock records of the 2010's - of all-time in due time - comes at the hands of a Danger Mouse collaboration - there's a certain clean and well-recorded feel to Wide Awake! The fiery punk aesthetic gets pumped through glossy pop production. There's a great mixture of fierce and friendly - or at least of friendlier sound. The contrast between tracks like 'Almost Had to Start a Fight' and 'Back to Earth' comes in the delivery of the material - both result in apprehensively acerbic territory, but via very different means. Satirically witty and simultaneously scathing, existential angst oozes from Wide Awake's being. The rumbles of modern day living find themselves present in every facet of day-to-day life. Unshakable and omnipresent, these festerings make torturous noise - at first, not evident, but they're always there; in the back of your mind; the tip of your tongue. Stuttering through the present moment. Watching things in ways that a sustainable life just can't deal with. Like roadbumps on an empty road they serve no purpose other than to make life harder than it needs be.

Fun, funky, and downright serious. Loose with a tight twist - like molasses slowly rising as time takes its toll; it's at the neck now, time to call for some help, maybe.

Wide Awake! is one of the finest bass-based records ever made. Every track is raised to another level - blessed - through the endlessly groovy funk-fueled fingers of Sean Yeaton. The politically charged and observational approach to songwriting from frontman Andrew Savage brings a fresh twist to the table.

What is an up-and-coming neighbourhood and where is it coming from???