Sunbathing Animal [LP]

Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal [LP]

Originally released in 2014 Sunbathing Animal is being made available via Rough Trade Records on November 28 2025. The year and change since the release of Parquet Courts monumental Light Up Gold is reflected in ways expected and not with Sunbathing Animal its sharper harder follow up. Light Up Gold caught the ears of everyone paying even a little bit of attention garnering glowing reviews across the board for its weird colors and raw energy saturated punk songs that offered crystal clear lyrical snapshots of city life. It was immediately memorable a vivid portrait of ragged days listlessness aimlessness and urgency broadcast with the intimacy of hearing a stranger's thoughts as you passed them on the street. As it goes with these things the band went on tour for a short eternity spending most of 2013 on the road their sound growing more direct in the process and their observations expanding beyond life at home. Constant touring was broken up by three recording sessions that would make up the new album and the time spent in transit comes through in repeated lyrical themes of displacement doubt and situational captivity. To be sure Sunbathing Animal isn't a record about hopelessness as any sort of incarceration implies an understanding of freedom and peace of mind. Fleeting moments of bliss are also captured in its grooves and extended at length as if to preserve them. Pointed articulations of these ideas are heard as schizoid blues rants shrill guitar leads purposefully lengthy repetition and controlled explosions reaching their peak on the blistering title track. A propulsive projection of how people might play the blues 300 years from now "Sunbathing Animal" is a roller coaster you can't get off moving far too fast and looping into eternity. A1. Bodies Made Of A2. Black and White A3. Dear Ramona A4. What Color Is Blood A5. Vienna II A6. Always Back in Town A7. She's Rolling B1. Sunbathing Animal B2. Up All Night B3. Instant Disassembly B4. Ducking and Dodging B5. Raw Milk B6. Into the Garden