Wide Awake! is a declaration of being aware of what’s going on around you and understanding its implications – whether it is modern socio-political unrest or personal family struggles. Take ‘Freebird II’, a title that’s good for a laugh but once you examine its contents you’ll quickly bite your tongue. Closer ‘Tenderness’ learns from the mistakes of the past and present and is the album’s small piece of hope.
The album is beautifully layered with often haunting instrumentation. The watery ‘Mardi Gras Beads’ is dark and gothic. ‘Death Will Bring Change’ skips along with marching drums and an eerie children’s choir. The band’s punk roots are featured on opener ‘Total Football’, ‘NYC Observation’, and ‘Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience’. The funkiest moment has to be the title track. The Caribbean island percussion, jumpy guitar licks, and punchy drums are straight out of an LCD Soundsystem or Talking Heads album.
Being “woke” in the age of Trump is no longer an interesting statement, because far too many have claimed that title. Parquet Courts have organized their thoughts expertly on Wide Awake! The end result is a near-perfect album that swallows the tensions we hold and tries to unravel them.
8.5/10
