There has always been a difficult streak running through Parquet Courts, both in their music and their general outlook on life. Rejecting what is expected of a band in 2015, they shun social media and show an amusing terseness in interviews. On their most recent tour they extended previously-brief songs like ‘Raw Milk’ into twenty minute long abrasive jams: think Godspeed You! Black Emperor via hipster Brooklyn. Yet the magic of Parquet Courts is that they have never allowed those more challenging aspects to completely take over. Rather, they have been fused with pop smarts and frontman Andrew Savage’s sardonic lyricism into little post-punk gems. At least that seemed to be the case until the release of Monastic Living.

Quite why Parquet Courts decided to release a mostly instrumental collection of dronish noise rock is perhaps a question that only the band can answer. Regardless of motives, it does not make for a fun listen. Things start off in fairly typical fashion with ‘No, No, No!’, as Savage yells: “I don’t want to be an influence, I don’t want you to understand.” By the end of the record the listener may well wish that Savage had a little more faith in the audience to take him for his word, as the band then proceed over the next half hour to obscure any kind of deeper meaning, or frankly, enjoyment. Savage is perfectly correct in one sense though, as it is hard to see teenagers being inspired to pick up their guitars and become the next Parquet Courts after this.

‘No, No, No!’ is the only song to feature vocals, but ‘Monastic Living I’ continues to get the release off to an intriguing start. The angular guitar rhythm sounds like it might lead somewhere interesting, but any hopes soon dissipate. It’s a recurring feature of this album that songs simply don’t evolve or mutate, with Parquet Courts evidently favouring the repetitive route. The album’s closing track, ‘Prison Conversion’ consists of a rumbling bass line that does very little for its full eight minute runtime, and while ‘Monastic Living II’ offers a welcome interlude of serenity, the pace is suitably glacial.

Perhaps Parquet Courts dedicated most of their time for this album into thinking of good titles. Certainly the most interesting thing about ‘Elegy of Colonial Suffering’ is its name, as the song itself consists solely of a harsh industrial beat for eighty seconds. ‘Frog Pond Plop’ sounds like the kind of title that Ariel Pink would apply to some jingly meta-pop song; Parquet Courts decided to take the opposite route.

The songs on Monastic Living are not terrible. They don’t actively offend; they’re just there. They might have made for interesting instrumental backings, or indeed as intriguing live diversions. Yet the choice to uncompromisingly present them on their own, on an official release; that is the perplexing issue. This is a bizarre release. Perhaps this is exactly the reaction that the band were hoping for. It would not be beyond Parquet Courts to release something with the main intention of alienating their listeners. What might be a joke to them, though, is not one for the listener. One can only hope that, on their next release, they go for something a little less uncompromising.