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Only a cranky blast of harmonica
near the end of the tune—
think Dylan if his harmonica
had somehow corroded at a
similar rate as his actual voice—
disrupts the relative calm. “Into
the Garden,” in turn, takes a
Southwestern detour, the four
players constructing a dry, airy
musical landscape more in tune
with their Texas home than their
current, cramped Brooklyn digs.
Lyrically, Savage remains
fond of dreamy bon mots, and
there are times his words play
like imprecise riddles. “What’s
sharp as a knife, followed me
all my life, waits never rests, till
it eat me alive” he sings on
“What Color Is Blood,” a slow
dance of epileptic guitar and
drummer Matt Savage’s tightly
wound kit-work. Elsewhere, he
veers between lines that seem
to hint at the pressures placed
on the band by the increased
public spotlight (“The velvet
stage, the concert stage…all
my friends are disappearing”)
and the kind of disassociated
ramblings one might expect to
hear shouted from a skid-row
street corner (“Unalloyed joy/I
thrice repeat/Unalloyed joy/
Unalloyed joy”). That both lines
fall within the same song—the
urgent, pogoing “Duckin and
Dodgin”—only shows how
slippery meaning can be in
the frontman’s skilled hands.
While grasping the band’s
words can feel a bit like
trying to take hold of a puff
of smoke, the music itself
never feels anything less than
primal. There’s momentum
and physicality to tunes
like “Sunbathing Animal,” a
thrashing cut that throws
sharp elbows. Light Up Gold
might have served as the
breakthrough, but tracks
like the title cut announce
Parquet Courts’ intentions to
press onward even further.
—Andy Downing
38 TONE AUDIO NO.64
July 2014 39