Liverpool’s Courting deliver their third album in two and a half years and confirm they are one of the most exciting and innovative bands around right now.
Whilst their first album was a cacophony of noise, jangly guitar and glitchy emo pop their second; 2024’s New Last Name, expanded their songwriting abilities and explored their more theatrical side. Released via Lower Third, their latest record, Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’, on one hand, is more stripped back and raw. But on the other, it is full of creative idiosyncrasies. It’s like a collage of different, and sometimes conflicting, musical ideas that aren’t afraid to be put together.
Courting
Whilst sometimes deliberately jarring, Lust for Life… demands your attention and despite the 8-track project coming in at just over 25 minutes, they’ve managed to fit in so many concepts that you’re not left unfulfilled. Rollback Intro starts the album with 48 seconds of strings that lull you into a false sense of security because a Courting record is anything but straightforward. I suppose you can think of this as an awakening; a palate cleanser from what your ears have consumed before. Then the distorted drum machine, glitchy synths and pulsating bass of Stealth Rollback shifts through the gears to propel you into the record with it’s rave-like energy evoking The Prodigy.
A clash of sounds, with elements of hyperpop, post punk and art rock, Courting worked with producer James Dring who has worked with a range of artists such as Gorillaz, Lana Del Rey, Jamie T and Nilufer Yanya, the quartet from merseyside, have created a primitive sound that is somehow familiar yet exhilarating in it’s unpredictable nature. Whilst rife with experimentation, Courting are able to do 3 minute guitar pop songs like the years was 2005 so well. Pause At You and Namcy both released as singles have an infectious groove. The former starting with a thumping bassline from Connor McCann and singer and guitarist Sean Murphy-O’Neill delivers a tight vocal performance akin to Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.
Courting
There’s a tension throughout the album, a constant push and pull of changing rhythms, sometimes within the same song. The epic title track Lust for life begins with a slow beat, gains a guitar melody and then there’s this anxious synth that is borderline discordant but it keeps you invested and guessing where they’re going to take you. A saxophone solo under Murphy-O’Neill repeatedly singing ‘I hope that we stay out tonight.’ You feel satiated by what appears to be a melodic ending. Then just as you think you know what’s happening, it takes another turn as drummer Sean Thomas appears to close out the song after 4 minutes in as he slows the tempo right down but transitions seamlessly into another drum fill into the second part with a guitar melody that wouldn’t be out of place on the Inbetweeners soundtrack. Always leaving the listener guessing and wanting more, sonically and lyrically, sometimes stopping mid sentence. In response to the protagonist seeing a gun on the nightstand the lyric “she said I know a place we can both go and she pushed it to my temple and I” where the track stops dead, it makes you sit up and take notice because the unexpected is never far away.
After You has a slight sinister edge with the band leaving the writing down to the listener as you take it as a romantic or underhanded way. This deliberate intention to be vague lends itself to the unorthodox performance of a band who see no constraints or boundaries to the path they’re carving out for themselves. The album’s closer Likely place for them to be begins with the same looping motif played first with strings on Rollback intro with a sharp electric guitar with Josh Cope continuing to drive on the track with a swell of emotion and energy before pulling back and ends where the album begins; with the same phrase played again on strings, allowing to seemingly loop back to the first track in beautiful symmetry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rViI1dNAvQ0
Despite the melting pot of ideas, there is a shared underlying DNA connecting components of different songs, and throughout the album. All of the songs evoke emotions. Sometimes that’s anxiety and paranoia; others it’s pure joy and elation. The immediacy of the music is enough to stop you in your tracks. This is the culmination of years of creativity, and they manage to blend crowd-pleasing anthems and bold electronic experimentation to make it one of the most interesting albums of the year so far.
Courting – Lust For Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle and Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’
Courting begin their UK tour at on 15 March at Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds. You can find their full tour listings below:
MARCH
15th – Leeds, Dark Arts at Belgrave Music Hall
31st – Newcastle , The Grove
APRIL
1st – Glasgow, SWG3 (Warehouse)
3rd – Nottingham, The Bodega
4th – Manchester, Gorilla
5th – Sheffield, Yellow Arch Studio
7th – Bristol, Thekla
8th – Birmingham, Mama Roux’s
9th -–London, Oslo
Review of Lust For Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle and Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’ from Courting by Chris Lambert.
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