Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life ALBUM REVIEW
I’ll be totally honest, I really dig the cover art here.
Brooklyn post-punk outfit Parquet Courts is a band I actually haven’t listened to a good amount of. I really don’t know a lot about them either, mainly since I only discovered them a month ago. Either way, I understand why they’re so beloved. To get into them, I decided to listen to their last album, 2018’s Wide Awake!, and I really loved it. I felt bad for not finding out about them sooner, honestly. Now, after hearing that album, we have their newest album out for the masses, Sympathy for Life. This is highly anticipated in the post-punk community, so let’s just get right into it.
It might just be me, but this album as a whole just seemed quiet. Liked, mixed quietly. It’s not something I generally notice when I listen to albums, but I caught that on the first listen. Outside of the quietness, this was just surprisingly boring. There really wasn’t any energy put into the instrumentals here, and even if I’ve heard one album from them, they’re very capable performers. Even the vocalist sounds bored. I’m not one to be negative, so I’ll say that there are good songs on this. There are a couple good solos and arrangements sprinkled across the album. The key term here is ‘sprinkled,’ and I mean that. There are creative and energetic moments here and there, but it’s not enough to save the rest of this album. After such a great album with Wide Awake!, Sympathy for Life is underwhelming. In a year full of great post-punk albums, Parquet Courts just seem bored and stick to their comfort zone.
5/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Sympathy for Life is a Rough Trade release.
Brooklyn post-punk outfit Parquet Courts is a band I actually haven’t listened to a good amount of. I really don’t know a lot about them either, mainly since I only discovered them a month ago. Either way, I understand why they’re so beloved. To get into them, I decided to listen to their last album, 2018’s Wide Awake!, and I really loved it. I felt bad for not finding out about them sooner, honestly. Now, after hearing that album, we have their newest album out for the masses, Sympathy for Life. This is highly anticipated in the post-punk community, so let’s just get right into it.
It might just be me, but this album as a whole just seemed quiet. Liked, mixed quietly. It’s not something I generally notice when I listen to albums, but I caught that on the first listen. Outside of the quietness, this was just surprisingly boring. There really wasn’t any energy put into the instrumentals here, and even if I’ve heard one album from them, they’re very capable performers. Even the vocalist sounds bored. I’m not one to be negative, so I’ll say that there are good songs on this. There are a couple good solos and arrangements sprinkled across the album. The key term here is ‘sprinkled,’ and I mean that. There are creative and energetic moments here and there, but it’s not enough to save the rest of this album. After such a great album with Wide Awake!, Sympathy for Life is underwhelming. In a year full of great post-punk albums, Parquet Courts just seem bored and stick to their comfort zone.
5/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Sympathy for Life is a Rough Trade release.
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