POP/ROCK

Parquet Courts, "Human Performance" (Rough Trade)

The wiseguys in Parquet Courts were never such wiseguys, after all. They could be sarcastic and cutting — a hot-take stereotype that flourished after their slacker anti-anthem "Stoned and Starving" on their perfectly realized 2012 album, "Light Up Gold." But there was always poetry and soul beneath the deceptively ramshackle surface, virtues that distinguish the New York-via-Texas quartet's fifth album.

Parquet Courts can be a ferocious rock band, as affirmed by the talon-like riff on "Paraphrased" and the breathless, you-are-there urban nightmare of "Two Dead Cops." But this is a dreamier, darker and at times surprisingly beautiful album — the turmoil is more in the narrator's mind than in the music pumping through the speakers.

In the title track, a mournful violin solo mirrors the mood of a narrator haunted by a breakup. "Outside" and "Pathos Prairie" stand as two of the band's pithiest and catchiest songs, and also two of the most damning, with ruthless self-interrogation turning into self-incrimination. The anxiety and sense of dislocation filter through the raga-rock of "One Man, No City" and the incongruous spaghetti-western guitar riff that cuts through "Berlin Got Blurry."

The album can be read as a conversation, as if the band members were talking to and consoling one another through their songs. Whereas once the foursome used bleak humor as a shield against the darkest emotions, Austin Brown offers empathy on the lilting "Steady on my Mind" and "Keep It Even." Amid the soft-spoken 3 a.m. drift of "It's Gonna Happen," weariness and sadness turn into quiet resolve. Vulnerability on a Parquet Courts album? Who knew?

greg kot, Chicago Tribune

Parquet Courts, “Human Performance”

Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop, "Love Letter for Fire" (Sub Pop)

These two are cut from the same cloth — two folkie souls with similar paths and predilections. Both were raised religious (Beam, Christian; Hoop, Mormon). Both have had long, complex relationships with Mother Nature (Hoop's a California girl who tried on wilderness survival for a minute; it's one of Beam's favorite songwriting subjects). And both are outstanding collaborators, as is beautifully demonstrated here. Their harmonizing, interweaving vocals are magically subtle.

Beam announced their full record and tour intentions by dropping "Every Songbird Says," a gauzy tune that teased the power in their entwined voices. "Welcome to Feeling," the opener, delicately introduces the LP's concept, but "One Way to Pray" heightens the theme with bits of Americana and old country. "We Two Are a Moon" smacks of M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel's She & Him — it's a little weird.

And though there's no shortage of pleasant music and vibes here, memorable, distinct tracks are lacking. Don't expect the pop vibes Beam channeled with the incredible 2011 Iron & Wine LP, "Kiss Each Other Clean." Instead, it's all campfire kitsch fueled by naturalist, New Age spiritualism.

Bill chenevert, Philadelphia Inquirer

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