| Sunbathing Animal | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 3, 2014 | |||
| Recorded | Seaside Lounge, Brooklyn, New York Outlier Inn, Woodridge, New York | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 46:13 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label |
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| Producer | Jonathan Schenke | |||
| Parquet Courts chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Sunbathing Animal | ||||
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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.
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]
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]
The songs on Animal take on "twitchy" garage rock and "literate" punk rock and shifts between "post-punk propulsion and slower, moodier experiments." [3] [4] [5]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.6/10 [6] |
| Metacritic | 78/100 [7] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| The A.V. Club | B+ [5] |
| Cuepoint (Expert Witness) | A− [9] |
| The Guardian | [3] |
| The Independent | [10] |
| Los Angeles Times |  [4] |
| NME | 8/10 [11] |
| Pitchfork | 8.6/10 [12] |
| Rolling Stone | [13] |
| Spin | 8/10 [14] |
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. [7] Rolling Stone magazine's Rob Sheffield said the band has evolved musically since Light Up Gold, [13] 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." [9] In a less enthusiastic review, Lanre Bakare of The Guardian felt their "twitchy garage-rock tales" about alienated characters make the album sound monotonous. [3]
Pitchfork placed the album at 140 on their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s". [15]
All tracks are 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 | |
Let It Be is the third studio album by American rock band The Replacements. It was released on October 2, 1984, by Twin/Tone Records. A post-punk album with coming-of-age themes, Let It Be was recorded by the band after they had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively as on their 1983 Hootenanny album; the group decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist Paul Westerberg, "a little more sincere."
Light Up Gold is the second studio album by American indie rock band Parquet Courts, initially released on August 18, 2012 on the lead frontman Andrew Savage's label Dull Tools. It was later released on a larger label, What's Your Rupture?, on January 15, 2013.
Parquet Courts is an American rock band from New York City. The band consists of Andrew Savage, Austin Brown, Sean Yeaton, and Max Savage (drums).
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Content Nausea is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Parquet Courts, released on November 28, 2014 under the name Parkay Quarts. Recorded chiefly by bandmates Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, the album was released less than six months after its predecessor, Sunbathing Animal.
Monastic Living is an EP by the American indie rock band Parquet Courts, released on November 27, 2015, on Rough Trade Records. The release features mostly improvised instrumental and experimental recordings.
Tally All the Things That You Broke is an EP by the American indie rock band Parquet Courts, released on October 8, 2013 on What's Your Rupture?. Released under the name Parkay Quarts, the EP was recorded during the initial sessions for the band's third studio album, Sunbathing Animal (2014).
Human Performance is the fifth studio album by American indie rock band Parquet Courts, released on April 8, 2016 on Rough Trade Records.
Suck My Shirt is the fourth studio album by American punk rock band The Coathangers. It was released on Suicide Squeeze Records on March 18, 2014, to generally favorable reviews. Mark Deming of AllMusic writes, 'their approach to songcraft has matured and tightened up quite a bit, and the departure of keyboard player Candice Jones has turned this group into a leaner and meaner three piece.'
Milano is a collaborative studio album by Italian composer Daniele Luppi and American rock band Parquet Courts. Produced by Luppi, it was released on October 27, 2017 on 30th Century Records and Columbia Records, and features several lead vocal contributions from Yeah Yeah Yeahs' singer Karen O.
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Andrew Savage, or A. Savage, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and painter, best known for his work as co-frontman for the rock band Parquet Courts.
