Sympathy for Life by Parquet Courts

Sympathy for Life, Parquet Courts' seventh studio album, came out on Rough Trade on October 22, 2021, and it's the New York band with its dancing shoes on. Nearly all of it had been written and taped before COVID-19 hit, and you can hear where their heads were: they jammed out long, improvised pieces and then carved them into songs steeped in clubbing and nightlife, with Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish producing.

Andrew Savage and Austin Brown trade vocals and guitars, Brown adding keyboards, while Sean Yeaton's bass and Max Savage's drums lock into grooves that keep insisting you move. "Walking at a Downtown Pace", one of four singles alongside "Plant Life", "Black Widow Spider" and "Homo Sapien", is the loose-limbed, strutting one rock radio took to. It's still wiry and wry, just with a pulse you can dance to.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.