Courting - New Last Name Review
You're either going to agree with this album, or really, really disagree with it.
Remember it? Fun music, I'm referencing, as in, music that is of high quality whilst maintaining a humorous narrator and tone that has you rolling your eyes at references and smiling. Fun guitar music, if I want to get more specific. Chart potential, akin to those who frequent Reading and Leeds fest. Fun guitar music with auto tune? I heard the first single ‘Flex’ and thought, oh, fun bit of autotune. And then it happened again, and again, and then again. A step too far for some it seems, but Courting's second album ‘New Last Name’ is very much all of this turned up to level one hundred, served across a span of tight 9 songs.
The band comprising of Sean Murphy-O’Neill, Sean Thomas, Josh Cope & Connor McCann, are unabashed in their vision and for that, the album is already a success in artistic devotion and a commitment to creativity, not wanting to return to a sound that popularised them but instead, go for broke and strive for something that can sit as stylistically acute as well as sonically daring.
The singles released in the run up to the album’s release (‘Flex’ ‘Throw’, ‘Emily G’ and ‘We Belong Together’) might've confused fans of their prior debut ‘Guitar Music’, that achieved widespread acclaim and garnered the rightful attention of music press and a touch of the mainstream for the boys from Liverpool. The second album offers much more of this confusion, a somewhat elusive concept entwining the multiple soundscapes the band explore across the tracks. It makes for an entertaining journey, lead by a narrator accompanied by a cast of characters, we have somewhat of a false knight who will definitely not save the day, not before he's recovered from night-time antics and can remember to an ensemble consisting of glorified rockstars, elusive love interest, a wedding party and more.
Take the track ‘Throw’, an amalgamation of nonsensical references that encapsulate an era of pop punk at its peak. Cheeky lyrics with ‘if someone's God made you look that pretty, I would throw my back out prayin'. Which is a strength in the album, moments like 'Yeah she's calling a cab, and I couldn't care more’, the chorus of ‘Emily G’ starting with a pun (‘Oh Em Gee’), the meta within the track ’The Wedding’ (‘But I've been a good boy on this track’); come on, this is funny!
With production efforts coming in from Ryan and Gary Jarman of The Cribs, the band have their fingers in a lot of genre pies throughout the album, which feels like an ambitious stray from their much-heralded debut. Shimmery guitars, charming keys, triumphant Saxophone, (‘Babys’ encapsulates the best of their musicality), frantic electronic drums and patters, and a whole lot of numerical and 2009 references. You're going to agree with this album, or really, really disagree with it. It’s a risk that worked for me and is worth exploring further in its full bombast and clever humour.