More about: Parquet Courts

Considering that, for the vast bulk of the 2010s, Parquet Courts stood as one of the most exploratory and prolific presences on the landscape of American indie, their latest collection—the recently-released Sympathy For Life—has been a long time coming.

We last heard from the Brooklyn quartet back in 2018, with the release of their acclaimed long-player Wide Awake!, and hindsight has revealed that album to have been something of a landmark for the band, its glistening production and memorable songs exposing its authors to the largest audience they had yet enjoyed. Considering the three year lull in output from a band who had previously issued at least one EP or LP per year throughout almost the whole of the preceding decade, it's perhaps tempting to speculate that the success of Wide Awake!—coupled, of course, with the disruptive influence of Covid-19—may well have resulted in more than a little writers block for frontman Andrew Savage and lead guitarist/part-time vocalist Austin Brown.

Be that as it may, Sympathy For Life has proven itself worthy of the wait. Although a record which incorporates a more holistic—and, indeed, often considerably stranger—palette of influence than its predecessor, the restless genre-hopping heard throughout this set feels entirely in-keeping with the freewheeling innovation found throughout the band's prior catalogue. Theirs is a body of work which—as in the case of both 2016's excellent Human Performance and 2014's enormously underrated Content Nausea—immediately highlights its authors' more avant-garde inclinations.

If the more experimental approach taken here is likely to preclude Sympathy For Life from reaching the kind of borderline-mainstream appeal that Wide Awake! revelled in, then that's ultimately a decision that the band have taken with full confidence in their own abilities, resulting in a collection rich in surprises—even for long-term fans. Though perhaps not quite as cohesive as the best of their output, Sympathy For Life is another rewarding collection from one of contemporary music's most interesting rock bands.

Esteemed UK indie stalwarts Rough Trade Records have had Parquet Courts in their stable for a half-decade at this point, so it should come as no surprise that they're the label who have issued the group's latest collection. In-keeping with their previous release methodology for the band (as seen with the vinyl editions of Wide Awake!) Rough Trade have opted to issue a few different versions of Sympathy For Life on wax. A limited edition is available with deluxe packaging, boasting a tip-on gatefold sleeve and glued-in booklet. There're also two coloured vinyl editions, although it's the standard non-limited black vinyl edition that we're looking at here.

Boasting superb artwork by the band's very own Andrew Savage, Sympathy For Life's visual aesthetic is entirely in-keeping with the group's long-held visual modus operandi. The cover itself is wrought from standard cardstock and, although a non-gatefold design of standard-width, it's by no means luxurious in specs (for those kind of standards, you'll need to pick up the deluxe edition). It certainly feels sturdy enough in-hand as to avoid seeming insubstantial though, and also included is an attractive fold-out lyric insert, although the inner sleeve is a generic non-polylined affair on this edition. Sagely, Rough Trade have also opted to attach the barcode as a sticker to the shrinkwrap, thus leaving the artwork unsullied.

The vinyl LP itself has been manufactured to impressive standards in the case of our copy, though that should hardly be a surprise, considering that it was pressed by Germany's Optimal Media; a plant who have, in our experience, maintained an excellent standard of quality control this year. Reflective of that, the noise floor on our copy of this LP is whisper-quiet and there's also no surface noise to speak of, resulting in a tidy listening experience that allows this well-recorded, impressively-mastered album to be enjoyed in uninterrupted form.

With Parquet Courts now back to their experimental ways after a sojourn into more commercial realms in the latter '10s, Sympathy For Life is likely to be a somewhat divisive statement for some amongst the band's now-engorged fan base; for those with a long-standing appreciation of the group and their unpredictable ways, however, this proves to be another engaging and daring record from a band who have always been at their best when taking risks.

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More about: Parquet Courts