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Parquet Courts and Bun B's "Captive of the Sun" Shouldn't Be This Good

And yet...

Last July, Brooklyn-via-Denton quartet Parquet Courts performed as the musical guests on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Their fifth studio album Human Performance had been out for three months and they were caught in the middle of a US tour. They played "Captive of the Sun," one of the more laconic tracks off of Human Performance; halfway through, legendary Houston rapper Bun B walked onstage and laid down a solid verse. And then he left.

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Which, really, shouldn't be remarkable. But pretty much every time guitar music and rap music get together with any degree of earnestness, they create something ungodly, unpleasant, and corny. Think of three good rap-rock tracks right now. Go ahead. No, I'll give you a minute, take your time.

Yesterday, Parquet Courts and Bun B released the official version of "Captive of the Sun," complete with a lyric video animated by Parquet Courts vocalist and underrated genius Andrew Savage himself. So now we have to ask ourselves again: why is this good? Why isn't it as shitty as almost all other rap-rock?

It could be because Austin Brown's vocals, all 80s St Mark's post-punk, aren't all that far from a rap verse as is. It could be that "Captive of the Sun" has just the right sort of strung-out glory for Bun B to fall into. Chances are, though, that Parquet Courts and Bun B are just flat-out good enough to pull something like this off where literally millions of other people have failed.

Check out the video below.

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