With 2014’s Sunbathing Animal, New York four-piece Parquet Courts finally, at the third time of asking, began to marshal their undoubted talents into memorable songs. Human Performance feels like a logical progression, with slightly stronger material, most notably the title track, a sublime slice of brooding garage rock, and the emotional dislocation of Berlin Got Blurry. Elsewhere, One Man, No City starts like Talking Heads and ends like a looser Velvet Underground, while Two Dead Cops reprises their earlier, punkier sound. Throughout, the ghost of Pavement is never far away. There’s still a degree of inconsistency: I Was Just Here is unpleasantly jarring, the wilfully flat vocal delivery not adding to its charm. But there are enough highs to make this worthy of a listen.
