Nearly every cut on Human Performance ... finds Parquet Courts exploring fresh sounds and reaching new heights in the process.
What’s most prominent on Human Performance ... is how its undercurrent of anxiety and paranoia—forged by the arrangements and relayed via the lyrics of Andrew Savage and Austin Brown—precipitates an indifference that becomes even more engaging thanks to its sophistication.
It is an album that claws gently at your ennui, playing on anxiety and stress and the claustrophobia of mental hoarding. Yet it’s far from a pleasureless experience, and therein lies the acrid charm of Parquet Courts’ growing accessibility.
Cut for cut, this is a triumph of melody and intelligence, with hooks that aren't cute and noise that doesn't dampen introspection, cosmic and prosaic at the same time. Parquet Courts have conquered rock 'n' roll's biggest hurdle: to move forward while staying true to themselves.
You'd be hard pressed to find a contemporary rock band honoring the classic Rough Trade legacy as well as Parquet Courts, in both sound and spirit, while doing something audacious and new.
Their less-than-zero aesthetic is as crisp as ever and they again show impeccable taste.
Parquet Courts may have just released their most realized, independent, and articulate album yet.
‘Human Performance’ is the sound of a band hurtling back in the opposite direction to deliver melodic alt-rock packed with droll observations.
Sceptics might see Human Performance's well-rounded, poppier sensibilities as the band softening themselves — on the contrary, they're just coming into their own.
If guitar music is condemned to skulk in the margins for the time being, it might as well do so sounding as spiky and agitated as this.
Despite Parquet Courts’ high jinks, Human Performance is in fact the sound of a band growing older.
Though the content is thematically similar, never before have they hit such a strong stride in writing pop-songs.
What makes Human Performance a narrowly great record is that it bucks narrative. It’s not their most sensitive record or politically astute or least dissonant but all of these things — their most convincing performance as humans to date.
While their intent has occasionally blurred in the past, Human Performance sees Parquet Courts deliver ideas with laser accuracy.
Human Performance shows that the band is just as vital and alive when it dials the intensity (way) down, cleans up some of the messy parts, and generally grows up in all the right ways.
It’s easy to simply pore over Savage’s frantic wordplay – which peaks when evaluating kebab-wrapping techniques on ‘Berlin Got Blurry’ – but the music is equally brilliant.
These are tight, economical pop songs actually worthy of Pavement comparisons in terms of not just sound, but melody.
There are no radical departures from past albums, but this is the most crisply recorded and varied Parquet Courts record yet. Musical ideas hinted at previously appear here in full color.
A tightrope walk between impulse and laser-point precision, ‘Human Performance’ is Parquet Courts at their most knotted.
Human Performance might have sacrificed the band's rickety immediacy, but they compensate with wise, grass-stalk chewing authority and grubby, plentiful hooks.
Human Performance is the first album you could describe as your typical Parquet Courts record – it gathers their best tricks in one place, along with new ones you wouldn't see coming.
The bulk of the songs are strong, well-written and full of energetic guitar-based performances.
Though Human Performance is built on a lusher palette than we’re used to from Parquet Courts, it’s their least outlandish vision of punk yet, following the rabbit hole of their last few releases to a strange, troubled, but rewarding new habitat of 21st-century uncertainty.
What the other releases do so well is that they either hit the spot hard or deliberately miss for effect, but this time round the result seems to be somewhere in between.
It comes through the window, it comes through the floor
It comes through the roof and it comes through the door
Dust is everywhere
Sweep!
If there’s ever an album that I’ll always have a fond remembrance of, it’d be this one. Yes, ‘Light Up Gold’ is fun, and ‘Wide Awake!’ is their magnum opus, but there’s something so special about ‘Human Performance’, at least to me. It’s one of the first post-punk albums I’ve ever ... read more
Parquet Courts are one of the few modern post-punk groups that I still find really gripping, because they don’t reek of pretension or a lack of inspiration. They’re just a group of dudes who love what they do, and it works wonders.
Standout: One man no city
Favs: Keep it even, Two dead cops, Berlin got Blurry, Dust, Paraphrased
Least fav: I was just here
Whilst not a huge change in sound for the band, Human Performance is probably the best album from these guys since Light Up Gold.
Best Track: Human Performance
Worst Track: I Was Just Here
It comes through the window, it comes through the floor
It comes through the roof and it comes through the door
Dust is everywhere
Sweep!
If there’s ever an album that I’ll always have a fond remembrance of, it’d be this one. Yes, ‘Light Up Gold’ is fun, and ‘Wide Awake!’ is their magnum opus, but there’s something so special about ‘Human Performance’, at least to me. It’s one of the first post-punk albums I’ve ever ... read more
7/10
good
Fav tracks: Already Dead, Dust, I Was Just Here, Paraphrased, Steady on my Mind, One Man No City, Berlin Got Blurry, Pathos Prairie
This is a pretty good Parquet Courts album. Got into them due to Fantano's review (but more so the fact they were ANOTHER NYC based rock group, plus that Wide Awake album cover caught my attention)
Best track: Berlin Got Blurry, I was just here, Dusty
Worst Track: There's no real bad track, but a big thing on this album is how (IMO), they just end their songs with solos or jams, so it feels like after the 3rd song to do it, it feels a bit repetitive, but the 2nd half of the album gives some ... read more
1 | Dust 3:57 | 88 |
2 | Human Performance 4:15 | 89 |
3 | Outside 1:45 | 81 |
4 | I Was Just Here 1:48 | 53 |
5 | Paraphrased 3:01 | 75 |
6 | Captive of the Sun 2:03 | 85 |
7 | Steady on My Mind 3:38 | 79 |
8 | One Man No City 6:24 | 85 |
9 | Berlin Got Blurry 3:26 | 80 |
10 | Keep It Even 2:47 | 71 |
11 | Two Dead Cops 3:05 | 77 |
12 | Pathos Prairie 2:51 | 74 |
13 | It's Gonna Happen 3:20 | 77 |
#5 | / | Piccadilly Records |
#6 | / | Under the Radar |
#9 | / | The Skinny |
#13 | / | Crack Magazine |
#13 | / | Les Inrocks |
#15 | / | Sound Opinions |
#16 | / | FLOOD |
#16 | / | Treble |
#17 | / | Rolling Stone |
#17 | / | Rolling Stone (Australia) |