When it comes to Liverpool’s Courting, in the words of Girls Aloud, we’ve got a whole lotta history. I was an early adopter, in fact I can say I was the first person to give them a positive review for one of their very first gigs.
So it’s fair to say I’ve been following their progress eagerly since, enjoying the immense trio of early singles (Football, David Byrne’s Badside and Popshop!), all up to and including the release of their debut album, 2023’s favourably received Guitar Music. Ahead of this release though, I’ve kept my powder dry with their pre-album singles, as the band have stated that this record should be viewed as an entire performance piece, like watching a play, rather than a succession of individual songs.
And that almost concept album approach goes right from the off and carries on through the first third of the album, starting with ‘Throw’, it’s a euphoric, throw-the-musical-kitchen-sink-at-it opener.
If you ever wanted to hear the perfect combination of Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Jimmy Eat World, then these are the opening songs for you, although the distortion on the vocals takes a bit of getting used to.
Throw’s stomping end leads into recent single ‘We Look Good Together (Big Words)’, which is almost arch disco-pop in its feel, but then comes another musical curve ball in the form of ‘The Hills’, which manages to sound like three different songs in one with an impressively brassy outro.
The more normal and familiar sound of Courting returns in the already a firm live favourite form of ‘Flex’ which heralds the start of part two of the album with its change of feel and tone.
The albums centrepiece and undoubted highlight is the almost 6- minute previously released single ‘Emily G’, a gloriously string-laden banger, very reminiscent of the work of The Cribs, no doubt due to the fact that the Jarman brothers worked with Courting on the record.
This record like most second albums, doesn’t seem to have the same whirl of ‘debut’ hype clamouring around it, which does it a massive favour as it seems to give the record the room to breathe.
So, we are only half way through and we’ve had the high school musical emo feel, the straightforward guitar music and now with the chilled-out Baby’s and the slower but catchy ‘The Wedding’, it’s enough to make your head spin, wondering in which direction this album is gonna end up, for a record containing these many different feels, if it has any direction at all (definitely not a criticism). Rather than feeling like a play, it’s more of a big-budget movie soundtrack vibe with all of its sonic ups and downs. It ends with the best example of this panoramic kaleidoscope.
‘America’ is the most ambitious track on a never-endingly ambitious record. Its huge, interrupting drum crashes are symptomatic of its epic nature.
In the wrong hands this could quite easily come across as a disjointed mess, but this is the polar opposite. There’s never a moment where there is anything to worry about, as Courting clearly know exactly what they are doing, this is a living example in album form of the confidence of youth.
There’s not an idea that doesn’t come off, not a note wasted on the whole album. It arrives, it hits like a punch and then it doesn’t outstay its welcome, it’s an addictive potion that makes for repeated listens. Hopefully it doesn’t get forgotten about (and looking at their heaving touring schedule, then there should be little danger of that) over the next 11 months, as this deserves to be on all of the 2024 lists.
