Sympathy for Life
Sympathy for Life is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Parquet Courts, released on October 22, 2021, through Rough Trade Records.[1] The record consists of 11 tracks that blend post-punk, indie rock, and electronic elements, emphasizing groovy rhythms and danceable structures inspired by nightlife and social gatherings.[2][3] Departing from the band's earlier, more abrasive punk sensibilities, Sympathy for Life incorporates synthesizers, minimal electro grooves, and a tension between social critique and escapist celebration, reflecting influences from disco and funk amid the constraints of pandemic-era isolation.[3][4] Critics noted its evolution toward accessibility and optimism, with tracks like "Walking at a Downtown Pace" and "Black Widow Spider" showcasing pulsating basslines and urgent pulses that invite movement.[5][6] The album garnered generally positive reception, achieving a Metacritic score of 78 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, praised for its instinctive energy and varied sonic palette despite some views of it as less innovative than prior works like Wide Awake!.[7] No major controversies surrounded its release, though it represented Parquet Courts' boldest stylistic pivot, prioritizing party-driven vibes over traditional rock aggression.[8][9]Development
Background and conception
Sympathy for Life originated from Parquet Courts' pre-pandemic explorations into dance culture and communal energy, with band members attending underground New York City parties that emphasized collective movement over individual nihilism.[10] Guitarist-vocalist Andrew Savage described these experiences as prompting a desire to craft music that fostered connection, stating, "We wanted to make something you could dance to."[11] This shift built on the band's prior incorporation of upbeat, syncopated rhythms in their 2018 album Wide Awake!, marking a deliberate evolution from punk roots toward more groove-oriented structures.[12] The songwriting process emphasized improvisation, beginning with basement jams that generated 40- to 50-minute sessions using instruments like the Korg MS-20 synthesizer and electronic drums.[10] These extended pieces were later edited and arranged into concise tracks, a technique Savage likened to collaging material from full tape reels to maintain spontaneity while achieving cohesion.[13] Influences drew from krautrock acts such as Can and This Heat, alongside Primal Scream's Screamadelica and Talking Heads, informing the album's hypnotic, layered grooves.[10] Personal experimentation also shaped early compositions; Savage recounted deriving lyrical and rhythmic ideas from LSD-assisted weightlifting sessions in Italy, followed by evening writing, which infused tracks with a sense of altered physicality and optimism.[10] The band approached conception without rigid conceptual frameworks, prioritizing process innovation to avoid repetition—Savage noted each album as a "creative challenge to change," ensuring authenticity amid evolving tastes.[13] This groundwork laid the foundation for the album's thematic focus on vitality amid societal disconnection, though much of the material predated pandemic isolation.[10]Recording process
The recording of Sympathy for Life began in November 2019 after the band members took a period of separation to recharge creatively and pursue personal endeavors.[14] [15] Guitarist Andrew Savage traveled to Italy, where he engaged in weightlifting sessions influenced by psychedelic experiences, while bassist Sean Yeaton focused on family life in a rural setting, constructing home projects and balancing fatherhood with music preparation.[14] This break allowed the group to return with fresh ideas, diverging from their prior songwriting methods that emphasized structured melodies.[16] The core sessions involved extended improvised jams lasting 30 to 40 minutes each, accumulating over 50 hours of material captured at Gary's Electric studio in Brooklyn, New York.[11] [16] To evoke a live DJ set atmosphere, the band incorporated "vibe tracks" from influences such as drummer Tony Allen and producer Larry Heard, played through headphones during these sessions to guide rhythmic improvisation without direct replication.[16] Refinement occurred at Daptone Records' House of Soul studio, where the lengthy jams were dissected, trimmed, and reassembled into concise tracks, prioritizing groove and communal energy over individual songcraft.[11] Production was handled primarily by Rodaidh McDonald, known for work with acts like The xx and Hot Chip, who oversaw most tracks and provided real-time sound manipulation to polish the improvisations.[15] [16] John Parish, collaborator with PJ Harvey, produced the title track and "Pulcinella" at Real World Studios in Bath, England.[15] The process concluded by March 2020, with overdubs completed remotely at band members' homes amid COVID-19 lockdowns, finalizing mixes by mid-April and delaying the album's release to October 2021.[15] This collaborative, editing-heavy approach marked a shift toward a more fluid, dance-oriented sound compared to the band's earlier albums.[14][16]Musical style and composition
Genre and instrumentation
Sympathy for Life represents a shift for Parquet Courts toward a more electronic and dance-oriented sound within the indie rock framework, incorporating elements of art rock, experimental rock, and synthetic funk while retaining the band's post-punk roots.[17][10] The album draws inspiration from New York club scenes, Primal Scream, and Pink Floyd, emphasizing improvised jams that evolve into groovy, psychedelic tracks suited for communal dancing rather than the raw aggression of earlier punk-leaning works.[11] Critics noted its accessible production and resolute songwriting, marking it as the band's most instinctive electronic effort to date.[3] The core instrumentation features the quartet's standard rock setup—guitars handled by vocalists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, bass by Sean Yeaton, and drums by Max Savage—augmented by synthesizers and drum machines that drive many tracks.[10][18] Yeaton's bass lines provide a foundational pulse, often propelling funk-infused grooves like those in "Sympathy for Life" and "Zoom Out."[10] Additional elements include jangling drums, riffing guitars early on, transitioning to dominant synths, with guest contributions such as John Parrish's variophon (an electronic wind instrument) and piano on select tracks like "From Your Bedroom to the Basement."[19][20] The production by Rodaidh McDonald enhances these layers, blending organic rock textures with electronic textures for a dynamic, club-ready feel.[21]Lyrics and thematic content
The lyrics of Sympathy for Life, primarily penned by vocalists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, interrogate the manipulations of modern identity under technological and capitalist influences, while countering nihilistic detachment with calls for interpersonal connection and rhythmic surrender.[3][11] Savage has described the album's thematic core as embodying "the tension between wanting to connect with people and the alienation that can come with modern life," pairing existential doubt with an "urge to find meaning in the everyday."[11] This marks a maturation from the band's earlier sardonic irony, evolving into erudite critiques that resist outright cynicism by affirming life's communal pulses, such as through dance as a "primal response to chaos."[22][11] Recurring motifs include technology's insidious role in shaping desire and autonomy, as in "Just Shadows," where lines like "Algorithm waltz sets the pace/Indicates an authentic taste/Tell me what I love" decry algorithmic curation of personal preferences.[3] Similarly, "Application/Apparatus" likens smartphone dependency to a maternal soothe masking systemic control, portraying a rideshare driver as an "operating mechanism" ensnared by capital, migration, and warfare's logics.[3][10] "Homo Sapien" extends this to consumerism's brutal undercurrents, linking "hardwired" desires to colonialist legacies amid ironic nods to contemporary absurdities like "a TV set in the fridge."[3][10] In contrast, tracks advocating resilience emphasize shared spaces over isolation: "Marathon of Anger" declares "No city, it’s all community," urging collective accountability in urban strife, informed by 2020's social upheavals following George Floyd's death.[3][10] The title track promotes a "lose-yourself" ethos with mantras such as "Be here now—you are/Lose all—distraction from," fostering immersion amid distraction.[10] Closing ballad "Pulcinella" shifts to intimate rupture and reconciliation, unmasking loneliness in a plea for enduring bonds: "'Darling it’s me,' as the mask comes off/'It always was.'"[22] Overall, the lyric sheet probes 21st-century unreason—freedom versus programmed routine—yet insists on sympathy as antidote to nihilism's pull.[3][22]Release and promotion
Singles and marketing
The album's first promotional single, "Plant Life", a 10-minute track, was released exclusively on vinyl on June 28, 2021, to tease the project's experimental direction.[23] "Walking at a Downtown Pace" served as the lead digital single, released August 18, 2021, with an accompanying music video directed by photographer Daniel Arnold, depicting urban scenes in New York City.[24] "Black Widow Spider" followed as a single on September 22, 2021.[25] The title track "Sympathy for Life" received its music video on December 14, 2021, directed by Valerie Ebuwa.[26] Marketing efforts emphasized experiential and multimedia elements over traditional advertising. Parquet Courts hosted 11 unique live events worldwide, one for each album track, designed to add "tangible dimensions" to the music through site-specific performances and interactions.[2] Additional promotion included a visualizer event for "Feel Free" on October 18, 2021, and a live Twitch appearance tied to the "Walking at a Downtown Pace" release on August 18, 2021.[27] [28] The campaign leveraged the band's Rough Trade Records affiliation, focusing on indie rock audiences via limited-edition formats and digital platforms rather than mainstream media buys.[4]Commercial rollout
Sympathy for Life was released on October 22, 2021, via Rough Trade Records, marking Parquet Courts' seventh studio album and their continued partnership with the label following Wide Awake!. The rollout followed the band's standard approach for physical and digital distribution, with pre-orders announced alongside the lead single "Walking at a Downtown Pace" on August 18, 2021, allowing fans to access the album approximately two months in advance of street date.[24] The album was offered in multiple formats to cater to collectors and casual listeners, including standard black vinyl LP, limited special edition colored vinyl, compact disc, and digital download through platforms like Bandcamp. Physical editions were sold via Rough Trade's official shop and independent retailers, with the vinyl pressing emphasizing high-fidelity stereo mastering for analog playback. No exclusive bundles or major retail partnerships were highlighted in the initial rollout, focusing instead on broad availability across North America and Europe under Rough Trade's distribution network.[17][29][1]Reception
Critical analysis
Critics lauded Sympathy for Life for its rhythmic evolution, marking a shift from Parquet Courts' post-punk roots toward groove-driven tracks influenced by disco, funk, and electronic elements, which injected unusual optimism into their typically sardonic catalog. Pitchfork highlighted how the album's grooves sustain tension between societal critique and fleeting celebration, rendering it more accessible for communal listening amid dystopian themes.[3] Similarly, NME described it as the band's "adventurous best," emphasizing garage-rock rhythms tailored for dancefloors while venturing into uncharted sonic territory, such as extended jams edited into concise structures.[30] This departure built on the danceable experiments of 2018's Wide Awake!, prioritizing propulsion over melody, as noted by Beats Per Minute, which positioned the record as a deliberate pivot toward rhythm as the core expressive tool.[5] Lyrically, reviewers appreciated the album's nuanced grappling with late capitalism, technology's alienating effects, and the pursuit of joy in apocalyptic times, evolving the band's prior brash cynicism into sharper, more reflective commentary. The Fader observed a maturation where nihilism yields to a yearning for connection and pleasure, evident in tracks like "Homo Sapien," which wryly dissects human innovation's paradoxes.[22] Paste Magazine praised this as an examination of consumerist excess through "blockbuster grooves," aligning the sound with thematic resistance to despair.[31] However, some analyses critiqued the execution as uneven, with Stereogum pointing to oblique, bleary qualities in jam-derived songs that dilute focus compared to the precision of earlier works like Human Performance.[10] Detractors argued the groove emphasis occasionally borders on lackluster repetition, sacrificing punk urgency for smoother, less confrontational vibes, potentially alienating fans seeking the raw edge of Parquet Courts' origins. Sputnikmusic captured this duality, deeming it "groovy and lackluster" where formulaic tracks falter despite rhythmic appeal.[32] WRBB Radio echoed concerns that many songs devolve into interchangeable categories post-initial highlights, diminishing overall impact.[33] Aggregate scores reflect this mixed but favorable consensus, with 76/100 on Album of the Year from 29 reviews and a Metacritic critic average underscoring broad approval tempered by debates over whether the innovations fully cohere or merely extend prior trajectories.[9][34] Ultimately, the album's critical value lies in its refusal to stagnate, though its success hinges on listeners embracing the tension between hedonistic release and intellectual bite.Achievements and criticisms
Sympathy for Life received generally favorable critical reception, earning a Metacritic score of 78 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, reflecting praise for the album's stylistic shift toward dance-oriented post-punk with synth-rock elements and groovy rhythms.[7] Reviewers highlighted its adventurous evolution from prior works, crediting producers Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish for a polished, accessible sound that balances earnest songwriting with club-ready beats and emotional introspection on themes like community and technology.[3][7] Specific achievements included standout tracks such as "Walking At A Downtown Pace" and experimental cuts like "Marathon of Anger," which drew comparisons to Talking Heads and Primal Scream for their loose, innovative energy and garage-rock vitality fused with dancefloor appeal.[30] Critics commended the album's optimistic pulse and urgent grooves as a refreshing departure, making it more suited for communal listening than the band's earlier, more abrasive efforts, with Pitchfork noting its resolute lyricism and broader sonic field ideal for headphones or crowds.[3] However, some faulted it for lacking the immediate punch and infectiousness of 2018's Wide Awake!, describing certain dubbier or oblique tracks as bleary or hit-and-miss rather than fully realized.[7][10] Others critiqued an incomplete commitment to its dance ambitions, resulting in a less memorable collection compared to the band's peak output, though user scores remained solid at 7.7 out of 10.[7] No major awards or nominations were associated with the album.[7]Commercial performance and legacy
Chart performance and sales
Sympathy for Life debuted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart upon its release on October 22, 2021, and remained on the chart for two weeks.[35] The album also entered the Australian Albums Chart at number 26.[36]| Chart (2021) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 26 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 14 |
Cultural impact and retrospective assessment
Sympathy for Life contributed to Parquet Courts' evolving reputation within indie and post-punk circles by incorporating danceable grooves and psychedelic elements, drawing from influences like Talking Heads and Primal Scream to emphasize communal ecstasy over earlier cynicism.[22] [5] The album's creation amid New York City's underground party scene and pandemic isolation fostered tracks like "Marathon of Anger," which channeled frustrations from 2020 Black Lives Matter protests into dub-infused rhythms, resonating with listeners seeking cathartic release.[11] [37] However, its cultural footprint remains confined to niche audiences, with no documented widespread adoption in broader media, fashion, or subsequent music trends beyond reinforcing the band's experimental ethos.[38] In retrospective evaluations, the album is frequently positioned as mid-tier in Parquet Courts' discography, ranking fifth out of their major releases on aggregate sites like Best Ever Albums, behind landmarks such as Wide Awake! (2018) and Light Up Gold (2012).[39] Critics have praised its optimistic pivot from punk austerity to hypnotic funk as a mature response to nihilism, yet noted divisiveness due to subdued tempos and synth-heavy production that alienated some fans expecting raw energy.[3] [31] User aggregates reflect this ambivalence, with Album of the Year scoring it 65/100 from over 600 ratings, viewing it as transitional experimentation rather than peak artistry.[9] By 2024, select appraisals labeled it underrated for tracks like "Pulcinella," highlighting its enduring appeal in fostering groove-oriented indie rock amid shifting genre preferences.[40]Packaging and content
Artwork and personnel
The artwork for Sympathy for Life was designed by Parquet Courts member A. Savage, who handled layout and visual elements, including a special edition tip-on gatefold sleeve with a glued-in booklet of artwork.[1] [41] The cover features an image or photo framed against a plain colored background, distinguishing it from the band's prior releases.[42] Core personnel consisted of the band's standard lineup: A. Savage (Andrew Savage) on vocals and guitar; Austin Brown on vocals, guitar, and keyboards; Sean Yeaton on bass and vocals; and Max Savage on drums.[43] [1] Production was led by Rodaidh McDonald, with additional involvement from John Parish, who also contributed electronic wind instrument (variophon) and piano on track B6.[43] [11] [41] Engineering credits included Evan Sutton for most tracks.[41] The album was recorded over three months from late 2019 to early 2020.[44]Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Walking at a Downtown Pace" | 4:47[17] |
| 2. | "Black Widow Spider" | 2:50[17] |
| 3. | "Marathon of Anger" | 4:35[17] |
| 4. | "Just Shadows" | 3:57[17] |
| 5. | "Plant Life" | 5:51[17] |
| 6. | "Application/Apparatus" | 4:36[17] |
| 7. | "Homo Sapien" | 3:42[17] |
| 8. | "Up on the Sun" | 1:54[17] |
| 9. | "Total Football" | 4:00[17] |
| 10. | "Zoom Out" | 3:21[17] |
| 11. | "Trimm Trabb" | 5:02[17] |