Review: Parts & Labor - Constant Future

Constant Future is an apt name for the fifth LP from Brooklyn-based trio Parts & Labor; whilst sonically it's no great shift forward from their previous albums, it's a confident piece of work, consolidating a niche sound which they should comfortably able to push through a few more albums to come. Behind the scenes of course, little about Parts & Labor has been constant - drummers have come and gone, and guitarist and fourth member Sarah Lipstaite lasted just a year - but to the credit of core members Dan Friel and B.J. Warshaw, none of that has ever been evident from the band's music.

The main difference between Constant Future and 2008's Receivers is the relative brevity of the songs; whilst a number of tracks on Receivers unwound steadily over 7 minutes, the songs on Constant Future tend to hit the ground running. Consequently the 12 songs here are rattled through faster than the 8 songs on Receivers. Whilst none of the songs on Constant Future could be accused of twiddling their thumbs, on occasion the conciseness can feel a little forced, as though the rug is swept from under your feet just as the song is about to hit paydirt; the lyric "nothing grows without a seed" on Without A Seed feels painfully ironic when the song fails to fully blossom after a highly promising opening.

For the most part, however, the abbreviated run-times prove to be Constant Future's greatest asset, accentuating the punchiness of the band's songwriting. The key elements of Parts & Labor's sound - the stellar guitars, complex drum patterns and electronic wig-outs - are present and correct on every song here, but the real joy of listening to Parts & Labor is the way they apply these unorthodox building blocks to big, meaty hooks and choruses, and Constant Future is rife with them. As with similarly-minded brits The Big Pink, Parts & Labor come across much more experimental on paper than they do in practise, and that suits them just fine; in Skin And Bones they even have a stomping anthem of Dominoes proportions. Nobody could claim either Friel or Warshaw to be the most expressive of vocalists, but the authorotive tones of Friel  in particular are sufficiently muscular to carry the songs to their chest-pounding choruses.

Whilst little has changed on the surface, Constant Future is a tangible improvement on Receivers. It's a thoroughly satisfying and hugely enjoyable set of songs; art-rock done on an arena scale.

79/100