Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal (Black Vinyl)

A glorious mess of contradictions: it's the least representative, most rigidly structured song from an otherwise free-ranging, stylistically sprawling album, somehow striking the middle ground between the militiaristic discipline of Pink Flag-era Wire and the brain-scrambling, desert-storming cow-punk of early Meat Puppets. It's a jackhammered '82 hardcore throwback that's so breathlessly paced, even a motormouthed wordsmith like Andy Savage has trouble keeping up—yet at four minutes long, "Sunbathing Animal" is about four times as long as a hardcore song is supposed to be, accommodating at least two duelling-guitar jams. But then, that's how Parquet Courts roll: They may be in a hurry, but they're going to take their sweet time doing so.