Parquet Courts return with Sympathy For Life, a studio album which arrives via Rough Trade Records on October 22. Today, the Brooklyn-based quartet unveiled lead single “Walking At A Downtown Pace” and its accompanying music video.
The follow-up to 2018’s Wide Awake! is largely composed of tracks developed from improvised jams. Parquet Courts noted the jams were influenced by New York clubs, Primal Scream and Pink Floyd. Sympathy For Life was produced with Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish.
“Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party,” noted co-frontman Austin Brown. “Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself. Historically, some amazing rock records have been made from mingling in dance music culture – from Talking Heads to Screamadelica. Our goal was to bring that into our own music. Each of us, in our personal lives, has been going to more dance parties. Or rather, we were pre-pandemic, which is when this record was made.”
“Most of the songs were created by taking long improvisations and moulding them through our own editing,” added Brown. “The biggest asset we have as artists is the band. After 10 years together, our greatest instrument is each other. The purest expression of Parquet Courts is when we are improvising.”
Parquet Courts tapped New York City street photographer Daniel Arnold to direct the “Walking At A Downtown Pace” visual. “We see New York City from the vantage point of someone busily hurrying through it,” stated co-frontman A Savage in regards to the video. “That’s what life can be like here; a world of constant motion surrounds you while you’re just walking toward where you need to be.”
See the band’s “Walking At A Downtown Pace” video below:
Sympathy For Life Tracklist
- Walking At A Downtown Pace
- Black Widow Spider
- Marathon of Anger
- Just Shadows
- Plant Life
- Application Apparatus
- Homo Sapien
- Sympathy For Life
- Zoom Out
- Trullo
- Pulcinella
