Mangham “Monk” Parker spent three years crafting his delicately haunting solo debut, recording with over 30 musicians on the family farm outside of Austin after returning from New York and the breakup of the Low Lows. The sound he extracts plies the harrowing depths distinguishing his earlier work, especially the often brutal unwinding of Parker & Lily, but here breathes and sighs in pockets of regret opened across eight songs. Lead track “Sadly Yes,” with its slow, burning pull and deep reverb, stands among his best, and the rest of the album follows in a soundscape of misery similar to Micah P. Hinson’s The Late Cord. Simultaneously expansive and claustrophobic, the strings and horns on songs like “The Happy Hours” and “Idle in Idlewild” emphasize what goes unsaid, ethereal and caught in an endless stasis.
This article appears in February 26 • 2016.
