Disassociation: as anyone who’s filled a journal in a city or country not their own can tell you, it’s good for art, bad for the psyche. It’s a feeling Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage has explored in the past (most notably on the Sunbathing Animal standout “Duckin and Dodgin”), but on “Berlin Got Blurry,” the second single from the band’s forthcoming Human Performance, he sets it to a loping western beat, with a gargle of a guitar line decorating the chorus.
The video, which you can see below, follows Savage around Berlin as he fumbles with everyday things: operating a washing machine, eating a kebab, and (most foreign of all) using a payphone. It also represents a subtle change in image for the Brooklyn band. While a kind of black humor has always been a part of what they do, they’ve only rarely been what you’d call “funny.” But between Savage’s deadpan phone face and the fact that half of his kebab ends up on his shoes, the “Berlin Got Blurry” clip subtly tweaks the song’s angst—those foreign crises always seem a little less serious in retrospect.
Human Performance is out April 8 on Rough Trade.
