An inspired solo work by the Parquet Courts singer – with plenty of acoustic guitar, a lot of intensity in semi-unplugged mode and almost literary strings of words.
Again and again on this album we are allowed to escape with the narrator, for example from a bear that makes itself known with its paws on the tent, from the oily blue sky in “Mountain Time”, or from the “Pharaoh’s Tomb” in New York. Every time I try to escape I lose, the man sings. Then it worked. Parquet Courts singer and guitarist Andrew Savage has recorded his second album and, despite the support of a dozen people inclined towards him (Jack Cooper, Cate Le Bon, drummer Dylan Hadley, violinist Magdalena McLean from the band Caroline and others), it can be classified as a solo work.
The storyteller, the observer and analyst, he plays primarily an acoustic guitar and what happens around it is intense but largely designed to support this semi-unplugged operation. This course, which the American Savage laid out in rural England, starts with “Hurtin’ Or Healed”. It sounds rough, direct, you should recognize the Courts singer by his voice. A piece of self-questioning in strings of words that is by no means sacrilegious to call literary.
“Elvis In The Army” is about being away from home, and is perhaps one of two more muscular rock songs in this wildly crackling collection of fire songs. But hats off, Savage, with the support of producer John Parish, manages to produce unpretentious and intelligent recordings in a more classic songwriter space.