Parquet Courts

Parquet Court's sophomore album, Light Up Gold, was a slow burner given long legs by one of last year's most perfect garage rockers: "Borrowed Time." Tally All the Things That You Broke feels more like an effort to extend the group's touring cycle than a glimpse of where the Brooklyn, NY quartet will journey next. Singer/guitarist Andrew Savage turns his quirky, observational lyrics inward on "You've Got me Wondering Now." Ostensibly, it's a break-up song, but Savage would never be so straightforward. Anchored by its title, he offers stray thoughts like, "Toothache's better than heartache" and, "I guess sunburn's better than heartburn." Although Savage's wit is as sharp as ever, there's nothing as immediately catchy as Light Up Gold's highlights. Lacking that album's propulsive pacing, we instead get a series of cuts that show the band experimenting, with mixed results. Both "Descend" and "Fall on Yr Face" sound like rejects from the Light Up Gold sessions, with the latter a throwaway goof. "He's Seeing Paths," however, is the wild card. Built from a drum machine beat and analog samples, it sounds like a lost B-side to Beck's Odelay. That Parquet Courts manage to stretch out their funky groove for almost eight minutes without things getting stale is quite the feat. How they decide to proceed when it comes time to record their third album proper remains to be seen. However, if this EP is any evidence, they've got more tricks up their sleeve than many of us thought.