Brooklyn post-punks Parquet Courts have announced their fifth album, Wide Awake!, which is due out May 18 via Rough Trade. The new record is a progressive step for the band both thematically and production-wise with Danger Mouse at the helm, an unexpected collaboration from a band whose existing catalog is self-produced.
Guitarist and singer A Savage has this to say about the new album and the unlikely pairing with Danger Mouse. “The ethos behind every Parquet Courts record is that there needs to be change for the better, and the best way to tackle that is to step out of one’s comfort zone. I personally liked the fact that I was writing a record that indebted to punk and funk, and Brian’s a pop producer who’s made some very polished records. I liked that it didn’t make sense." After Danger Mouse, an admirer of the Parquet Courts, reached out to the band, they realized this was just the opportunity to stretch themselves that they were hoping for.
Wide Awake! is centered on independence and individuality, but also about collectivity and communitarianism as a means of coping and confronting the current political climate. There’s also a freshness, a breaking of new territory that’s a testament to the group’s restless spirit. “In such a hateful era of culture, we stand in opposition to that — and to the nihilism used to cope with that — with ideas of passion and love," says guitarist Austin Brown.
Parquet Courts have also released an animated video for the split first single, “Almost Had To Start A Fight/In And Out Of Patience,” which adequately matches the track's jolty and neurotic vibe. Watch it below, and peep Parquet Courts' spring tour dates here.