Courting

Lasso-ing genres as diverse as pop-punk, hyper pop, art-pop, and even a smattering of breakbeat, Courting have come out with their pop guns blazing on album number two - and they've got the necessary hooks locked in to back up this sizeable ground shift.

From the funk-pop guitars in ‘We Look Good Together’ through to the baroque strings in ‘Flex’ or even the country-tinged stylings of ‘Babys’, it would be an understatement to call ‘New Last Name’ adventurous. Whilst it IS tied together by a narrative thread – it’s actually a collection of their most contained pop songs, and strangest experiments sat side by side. 'New Last Name' is unrestrained and chaotic, and at the same time more focused and detail-oriented than anything Courting have done before. It’s a study in contradictions, and it’s the best damn play south of the north pole. Brimming with nuance and pop culture references, the only constant is that the Liverpool gang maintains their irrepressible sense of abandon. “We’d spent our last album campaign giving ourselves a fresh slate,” explains vocalist Sean Murphy-O’Neill. “That whole record to me in hindsight felt like we had a chance to get rid of any misconceptions about us and present ourselves as an interesting band. On ‘New Last Name’, we’re moving past that, we just want to make something really special.” In a strange way this album is the band’s true introduction, or they confidently put it, “It’s all hits.”