The sloppy seduction of Parquet Courts

There is something awful and intriguing about Parquet Courts — they’re awful in the best way possible. They charm you with sloppy guitars, lazy vocals, and nonsensical lyrics, which drape the bands discography, and on this year’s Human Performance, the atrocity continues…

Parquet is comparable to Pavement, with idiosyncratic lyrics and a spunky playfulness that makes punk accessible, if unpredictable — their songs sound bad but feel great. The robotic rhythm behind “I Was Just Here” captures the feeling of delusion before stepping into “Paraphrased,” which owns a similar pleasurable annoyance. “Dust is every where…sweep” is the “profound” line of “Dust,” combined with a drunken instrumental that gets trapped in your head. The guitar kindness of “Steady on My Mind” and upbeat bongo delicacy on “One Man, No City” (the solo toward the end sounds like a lunatic fiddling the guitar) contribute to the quirky enjoyment that gives Parquet Courts their charm.

The split singing between Andrew Savage and Austin Brown allows some variety to the album, but at times you might not consider it singing…loud-speaking, maybe? Yell-talking? Whatever it is, it’s bad and addictive — and, luckily, this isn’t American Idol.

Human Performance sounds drunk, but the quartet’s fifth album in five years hasn’t lost a stumbling step; scatter these 14 songs into their discography and they will blend right in. Whether that is a good thing is for you to decide.

• Album: Human Performance
• Artist: Parquet Courts
• Label: Rough Trade Records
• Songs: (1) “Dust” (2) “Human Performance” (3) “Outside” (4) “I Was Just Here” (5) “Paraphrased” (6) “Captive Of The Sun” (7) “Steady On My Mind” (8) “One Man, No City” (9) “Berlin Got Blurry” (10) “Keep It Even” (11) “Two Dead Cops” (12) “Pathos Prairie” (13) “It’s Gonna Happen”