Parquet Courts drops new album titled “Wide Awake.”

The Brooklyn music band Parquet Courys keep the quality high with their most fully-realised album, Wide Awake.

Andrew Savage doesn’t keep you waiting long for his first snarl. Just under a minute into ‘Total Football’, the taut opener on Parquet Courts’ sixth album, the meandering bassline drops away to afford Savage’s scream more space. “Are you quite done now?”

It’s immediately clear that Parquet Courts aren’t done now, not by a long chalk. Based in Brooklyn, Savage and his bandmates – guitarist and fellow songwriter Austin Brown, bassist Sean Yeaton and Savage’s younger brother Max on drums – have been releasing excellent punk-rock records defined by venom, groove and lyrics that make you wish you read more books since their 2011 debut ‘American Specialties’.

If 2012’s ‘Light Up Gold’ woke the world up to a group that many touted as the latest answer to The Strokes, ‘Wide Awake!’ is an indelible underlining of their status as one of the most important bands in the world right now. Before we continue, a mildly surprising fact: this record was produced by 19-time Grammy nominee Danger Mouse, whose CV includes The Black Keys, A$AP Rocky, Norah Jones. Far from softening Parquet Courts’ edges, he has enhanced everything that makes the quartet great – sound, imagination, style. The Beastie Boys, Black Flag and Talking Heads are all here in spirit.

Stream the album below.

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