Privilege Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect

Parenthetical Girls continue their ambitious Privilege experiment with Privilege, pt II: The Past, Imperfect--a harrowing and bombastic four-song suite of class warfare, transgression, sexual politics, and gleeful infidelities. Each is immediately palpable in opener 'The Common Touch,' with Pennington reprising his familiar role of the deplorable protagonist in a malicious game of class and carnal contempt. 'Weaknesses' follows, beginning with a sweet and sumptuous red herring before ceding to tale of sexual and emotional duplicity. Lead single 'Young Throats' finds the group at their most powerfully perverse, while 'Present Perfect (An Epithalamium)'--with its howling refrain of 'We all salivate when the bells ring'--reminds us that, in spite of ourselves, our pasts are never too far behind us. Together, they comprise a bold, strikingly cohesive pop clarion call that further solidifies Parenthetical Girls' place amongst the most surprising and uncompromising pop groups at work today.