Song Of The Day 7/2/2014: Parquet Courts - "Instant Disassembly"

New Music Week: Parquet Courts mania had in effect passed me by. It's not that there isn't a lot to like, it's just that they're one of those bands that didn't strike me with as immediate an impact as they were hitting everyone else. That could be because I spend a considerable amount of time in a prostrate position. Their new album Sunbathing Animal was rolling down that path for me -- I enjoyed it, favorably cast it alongside Marquee Moon, but still wasn't picking up on its charms.

Then I got to "Instant Disassembly," a seven-minute song with a constantly cycling melodic mantra that doesn't change tempo, dynamics or structure much at all over its time. What should have been, on paper, the album's most maddeningly uni-dimensional track, well, it's the one by Parquet Courts that finally enthralled me. And now I have to go back and listen to all of Sunbathing Animal (albums named for the art of sunbathing do especially well in my world) to see if there's anything I can now catch with the light of "Instant Disassembly." I like how the story progresses, how the singer's senses and thought patterns very gradually seep into the void one by one, until he reaches the nadir of communication, lapsing into loop mode. That's why the song takes so damn long and is so damn repetitive: This is probably how it happens in real life. Treat my attention span like the rust-corroded, flabby polymer it is. Thanks Parquet Courts!