Sunbathing Animal

Sunbathing Animal
Studio album by Parquet Courts
Released June 3, 2014
Recorded Seaside Lounge, Brooklyn, New York
Outlier Inn, Woodridge, New York
Genre Garage rock, Post-punk
Length 46:13
Language English
Label What's Your Rupture?
Rough Trade (UK)
Producer Jonathan Schenke
Parquet Courts chronology
Tally All the Things That You Broke
(2013)		 Sunbathing Animal
(2014)		 Content Nausea
(2014)
Singles from Sunbathing Animal
  1. "Sunbathing Animal"
    Released: April 1, 2014
  2. "Black & White"
    Released: May 1, 2014
  3. "Instant Disassembly"
    Released: May 15, 2014

Sunbathing Animal is the third studio album by American punk rock band Parquet Courts, released on June 3, 2014 on What's Your Rupture? and Rough Trade Records.

Recording

Sunbathing Animal was recorded in 2013, over the course of three sessions. The first of these sessions yielded the EP, Tally All the Things That You Broke (2013), with vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown stating, “We had to kind of squeeze [recording] in between long runs of touring; whenever we had a couple of weeks off, we’d try to arrange a few days in the studio. The first session more or less produced the EP that we put out last year, Tally All the Things That You Broke; that was all brand new stuff, that we just laid down and got out right off the bat. We had a few more songs back then that we saved for the record, and we put all of it down later last year. It wasn't a stretch at all; we were never rushing to get anything finished."[1]

Writing and composition

The band began writing material for Sunbathing Animal shortly after recording its predecessor, Light Up Gold (2012), with vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown noting: "The truth is, we've been writing new material ever since we wrapped the last one up. If anything, we took our time".[1]

Many of the album's lyrics were written whilst on tour in support of Light Up Gold,[1] with Brown stating: "There’s a few prevailing themes going on, but the major one kind of involves a duality between freedom and captivity; that balance between the freedom that you find in being in a band - or just being a creative person in the world, that’s trying to leave their mark - and then the captivity that goes along with the constraints that you come up against when you’re trying to make shit work, and a lot of the time having it fail. I think [vocalist and guitarist] Andrew [Savage] saw that dichotomy in the story behind the title, and it works well in that respect, because it runs all the way through the record."[1] Brown later elaborated, stating that the album's lyrical content is its most important aspect: "When we started out to make this record, the focus was – more than ever – on the lyrics. They came first in the process and are meant to be right at the front, so that you’re forced to listen to them. I mean, I don’t know if there’s a hook or chorus on the whole record; but that forces the audience to create their own, depending on which lyric pops out to them – so in its own way it becomes the chorus.”[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
The A.V. ClubB+[4]
CuepointA−[5]
The Guardian[6]
The Independent[7]
Los Angeles Times[8]
NME8/10[9]
Pitchfork Media8.6/10[10]
Rolling Stone[11]
Spin8/10[12]

Sunbathing Animal received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 35 reviews.[13] Rolling Stone magazine's Rob Sheffield said the band has evolved musically since Light Up Gold,[11] while Robert Christgau wrote in Cuepoint that "Andrew Savage has succeeded at composing songs with distinct hooks at differing lengths and tempos and constructing an album that reveals more goodies the more you play it."[5] In a less enthusiastic review, Lanre Bakare of The Guardian felt their "twitchy garage-rock tales" about alienated characters make the album sound monotonous.[6]

Track listing

All tracks written by Parquet Courts. 

No. Title Length
1. "Bodies Made of"   3:21
2. "Black & White"   3:02
3. "Dear Ramona"   2:34
4. "What Color is Blood?"   3:24
5. "Vienna II"   1:02
6. "Always Back in Town"   2:37
7. "She's Rolling"   6:33
8. "Sunbathing Animal"   3:52
9. "Up All Night"   1:02
10. "Instant Disassembly"   7:12
11. "Ducking & Dodging"   4:29
12. "Raw Milk"   3:59
13. "Into the Garden"   3:00
Total length:
 46:13

Personnel

Parquet Courts
Additional musicians
Recording personnel
Artwork

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Goggins, Joe. "Interview: Parquet Courts". thelineofbestfit.com. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Catling, Simon Jay. "Ascending The Animal Kingdom: Parquet Courts' Austin Brown Interviewed". theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Sendra, Tim. "Sunbathing Animal - Parquet Courts". AllMusic. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ Anthony, David (2014). "Review: Parquet Courts expands its attack on Sunbathing Animal". The A.V. Club (June 3). Chicago. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (November 21, 2014). "Expert Witness". Cuepoint. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Bakare, Lanre (2014). "Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal review – twitchy garage-rock tales". The Guardian (June 5). London. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  7. ↑ Gill, Andy (2014). "Album reviews: Kasabian, Parquet Courts, Martin & Eliza Carthy, Holland Dozier Holland, Ethan Johns, James". The Independent (May 31). London. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  8. ↑ Martens, Todd (2014). "Review: Parquet Courts' literate punk". Los Angeles Times (June 2). Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  9. ↑ Homewood, Ben (2014). "Parquet Courts - 'Sunbathing Animal'". NME. London (May 30). Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  10. ↑ Fitzmaurice, Larry (June 4, 2014). "Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  11. 1 2 Sheffield, Rob (June 19, 2014). "Sunbathing Animal Album Review". Rolling Stone. New York (1211). Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  12. ↑ Gubbels, Jason (2014). "Parquet Courts, 'Sunbathing Animal' Review". The A.V. Club. Chicago (June 2). Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Reviews for Sunbathing Animal by Parquet Courts". Metacritic. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.