Parquet Courts' Andrew Savage and Austin Brown weren't content with only releasing one great album in 2014, and are back as Parkay Quarts with a brand new collection of songs. Not necessarily a huge departure from their original band's sound, Content Nausea continues to expand the band's garage-rock and post-punk aesthetic, while offering an outlet for Savage and Brown to flex their songwriting muscles.
Spoken word short story "The Map" is a great exploration of adult anxiety, with opening line "You'll be uncomfortable 40 percent of the time at the gates of adulthood" appropriately exposing the plight of the early-30s songwriters. The album's shortest and longest cuts are also the best: "Insufferable" immediately latches onto you to then suddenly ends, as most good punk songs do, and album closer "Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myst," a reinterpretation of the original by Andrew Savage's previous band Teenage Cool Kids, is a laidback bluesy exercise in effortlessness. Content Nausea's three short interludes do a great job pacing the album, linking tracks that would have otherwise been incongruous back to back. The cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" doesn't necessarily add much to the album, starting off as a pretty straightforward rendition with added background brass, but then gloriously blitzes out for its last minute.
For an album that was recorded, mixed and mastered within a two-week period, Content Nausea reasserts Parkay Quarts as talented musicians able to deliver successive releases that are far more accomplished than many other big label garage-rock albums.
(What's Yr Rupture?)Spoken word short story "The Map" is a great exploration of adult anxiety, with opening line "You'll be uncomfortable 40 percent of the time at the gates of adulthood" appropriately exposing the plight of the early-30s songwriters. The album's shortest and longest cuts are also the best: "Insufferable" immediately latches onto you to then suddenly ends, as most good punk songs do, and album closer "Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myst," a reinterpretation of the original by Andrew Savage's previous band Teenage Cool Kids, is a laidback bluesy exercise in effortlessness. Content Nausea's three short interludes do a great job pacing the album, linking tracks that would have otherwise been incongruous back to back. The cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" doesn't necessarily add much to the album, starting off as a pretty straightforward rendition with added background brass, but then gloriously blitzes out for its last minute.
For an album that was recorded, mixed and mastered within a two-week period, Content Nausea reasserts Parkay Quarts as talented musicians able to deliver successive releases that are far more accomplished than many other big label garage-rock albums.
