The press release for Monastic Living advises you to read the album’s liner notes before listening to the New York post-punk band’s latest EP. Those notes – scribbled on a salmon-pink background and riddled with deliberate spelling errors – are something of a “declaration of silence,” and it’s a vow the band solemnly keeps.
Aside from the opener, in which lead singer Andrew Savage shouts, “I don’t want to be called a poet / I don’t want to be cited, tacked onto your cause,” the 33-minute EP is entirely instrumental. Unfortunately, the music that follows isn’t nearly as subversive or experimental as the concept. The songs range from what sound like rambling jam sessions to short blips of pure noise and glimpses of melody. Monastic Living I is six minutes of scratchy, lo-fi clanging Monastic Living II is mostly just plodding synth lines Alms For The Poor, at 46 seconds, is a catchy post-punk riff that cruelly fades out before it has the chance to sink in.
There’s no doubt Parquet Courts consciously made the album challenging. If only it weren’t so unlistenable.
Top track: Alms For The Poor
Parquet Courts play Lee’s Palace on Wednesday (December 9).
