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Oct 09, 2013 Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT By Kate Bennett

Parquet Courts’ new EP starts out on familiar territory with the first two tracks’ laid-back, irreverent garage punk, and then it all gets a little bit weirder. “The More It Works” mostly consists of frontman Andrew Savage yelping “The more you use it/The more it works” repeatedly for five minutes over the same three-note guitar riff, interspersed with vague us-and-them, screw-the-man style posturing: “Express yourself without the tools that they give you!/Want something that they didn’t tell you to want!” “Fall On Yr Face” is mainly inane ranting over a scratchy, angular guitar hook; the best thing about it is that it doesn’t last very long.

The EP’s final track, “He’s Seeing Paths,” however, redeems the band with its clattering slacker vibe. There are cow-bells, there are drawling Western guitar slides, there’s a warm, rumbling bass line: it’s all very “Loser” by Beck, in the best possible way—though it perhaps doesn’t need to be seven and a half minutes long. Tally All the Things That You Broke has some great moments on it, but could have done with a little more quality control to stop it sounding like something rushed out to capitalize on the cult success of Light Up Gold. (www.parquetcourts.wordpress.com)

Author rating: 6/10