Sunbathing Animal

Sunbathing Animal is the third studio album by American punk rock band Parquet Courts, released on June 3, 2014 on What's Your Rupture? and Rough Trade Records.

Sunbathing Animal
Studio album by Parquet Courts
Released	June 3, 2014
Recorded	Seaside Lounge, Brooklyn, New York Outlier Inn, Woodridge, New York
Genre	Garage rock, post-punk
Length	46:13
Language	English
Label	What's Your Rupture? Rough Trade (UK)
Producer	Jonathan Schenke
Parquet Courts chronology
Tally All the Things That You Broke (2013) Sunbathing Animal (2014) Content Nausea (2014)
Singles from Sunbathing Animal
"Sunbathing Animal" Released: April 1, 2014 "Black & White" Released: May 1, 2014 "Instant Disassembly" Released: May 15, 2014

Recording

Sunbathing Animal was recorded in 2013, over the course of three sessions. The first of these sessions yielded the EP, Tally All the Things That You Broke (2013), with vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown stating, “We had to kind of squeeze [recording] in between long runs of touring; whenever we had a couple of weeks off, we’d try to arrange a few days in the studio. The first session more or less produced the EP that we put out last year, Tally All the Things That You Broke; that was all brand new stuff, that we just laid down and got out right off the bat. We had a few more songs back then that we saved for the record, and we put all of it down later last year. It wasn't a stretch at all; we were never rushing to get anything finished."[1]

Writing and composition

The band began writing material for Sunbathing Animal shortly after recording its predecessor, Light Up Gold (2012), with vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown noting: "The truth is, we've been writing new material ever since we wrapped the last one up. If anything, we took our time".[1]

Many of the album's lyrics were written whilst on tour in support of Light Up Gold,[1] with Brown stating: "There’s a few prevailing themes going on, but the major one kind of involves a duality between freedom and captivity; that balance between the freedom that you find in being in a band - or just being a creative person in the world, that’s trying to leave their mark - and then the captivity that goes along with the constraints that you come up against when you’re trying to make shit work, and a lot of the time having it fail. I think [vocalist and guitarist] Andrew [Savage] saw that dichotomy in the story behind the title, and it works well in that respect, because it runs all the way through the record."[1] Brown later elaborated, stating that the album's lyrical content is its most important aspect: "When we started out to make this record, the focus was – more than ever – on the lyrics. They came first in the process and are meant to be right at the front, so that you’re forced to listen to them. I mean, I don’t know if there’s a hook or chorus on the whole record; but that forces the audience to create their own, depending on which lyric pops out to them – so in its own way it becomes the chorus.”[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[3]
Metacritic	78/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
The A.V. Club	B+[6]
Cuepoint (Expert Witness)	A−[7]
The Guardian	[8]
The Independent	[9]
Los Angeles Times	[10]
NME	8/10[11]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[12]
Rolling Stone	[13]
Spin	8/10[14]

Sunbathing Animal received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 35 reviews.[4] Rolling Stone magazine's Rob Sheffield said the band has evolved musically since Light Up Gold,[13] while Robert Christgau wrote in Cuepoint that "Andrew Savage has succeeded at composing songs with distinct hooks at differing lengths and tempos and constructing an album that reveals more goodies the more you play it."[7] In a less enthusiastic review, Lanre Bakare of The Guardian felt their "twitchy garage-rock tales" about alienated characters make the album sound monotonous.[8]

Pitchfork placed the album at 140 on their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s".[15]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Parquet Courts.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Bodies Made of"	3:21
2.	"Black & White"	3:02
3.	"Dear Ramona"	2:34
4.	"What Color is Blood?"	3:24
5.	"Vienna II"	1:02
6.	"Always Back in Town"	2:37
7.	"She's Rolling"	6:33
8.	"Sunbathing Animal"	3:52
9.	"Up All Night"	1:02
10.	"Instant Disassembly"	7:12
11.	"Ducking & Dodging"	4:29
12.	"Raw Milk"	3:59
13.	"Into the Garden"	3:00
Total length:		46:13

Personnel

Parquet Courts

• Andrew Savage – vocals, guitar
• Austin Brown – vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Sean Yeaton – bass guitar
• Max Savage – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

• Lea Cho – harmonica (7)

Recording personnel

• Jonathan Schenke – recording, mixing
• Joe Laporta – mastering

Artwork

• Andrew Savage – artwork

References

1. Goggins, Joe. "Interview: Parquet Courts". thelineofbestfit.com. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
2. Catling, Simon Jay. "Ascending The Animal Kingdom: Parquet Courts' Austin Brown Interviewed". theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
3. "Sunbathing Animal by Parquet Courts reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
4. "Reviews for Sunbathing Animal by Parquet Courts". Metacritic. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
5. Sendra, Tim. "Sunbathing Animal – Parquet Courts". AllMusic. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
6. Anthony, David (June 3, 2014). "Parquet Courts expands its attack on Sunbathing Animal". The A.V. Club. Chicago. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
7. Christgau, Robert (November 21, 2014). "Robert Christgau: Expert Witness". Cuepoint. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
8. Bakare, Lanre (June 5, 2014). "Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal review – twitchy garage-rock tales". The Guardian. London. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
9. Gill, Andy (May 31, 2014). "Album reviews: Kasabian, Parquet Courts, Martin & Eliza Carthy, Holland Dozier Holland, Ethan Johns, James". The Independent. London. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
10. Martens, Todd (June 2, 2014). "Review: Parquet Courts' literate punk". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
11. Homewood, Ben (May 30, 2014). "Parquet Courts – 'Sunbathing Animal'". NME. London. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
12. Fitzmaurice, Larry (June 4, 2014). "Parquet Courts: Sunbathing Animal". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
13. Sheffield, Rob (June 19, 2014). "Sunbathing Animal". Rolling Stone. New York (1211). Retrieved November 21, 2014.
14. Gubbels, Jason (June 2, 2014). "Parquet Courts Are Inscrutably Awesome on 'Sunbathing Animal' (Which Does Not Sound Like Pavement)". Spin. New York. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
15. "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s". Pitchfork. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2020.