Parts & Labor
Stay Afraid
(Jagjaguwar)
From the opening bars of Stay Afraid, it is evident that this Brooklyn trio has studied the first cardinal rule for assaulting the senses: if you can write a catchy melody then you can do whatever the fuck else you want. Explosive feedback, macerating rhythms and senseless noise teetering on the brink of oblivion—all here in spades. Parts & Labor lure you in with anthemic melodies and sing-along choruses that leave you shuddering in their wake. Sure, it’s easy to make noise. To shape such disregard for aural decorum into an orderly chaos that is both challenging and interesting is not so easy, but that is something that Parts & Labor do frighteningly well.
—Dave Hayden
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.