Courting will release new album ‘New Last Name’ on January 26th.
The Liverpool band will release the album on January 26th, and it was constructed alongside The Cribs. Two generations of indie titans together, the record is an ambitious song cycle, a series of interlocking vignettes.
“It’s a theatrical play within an album,” explains frontman Sean Murphy O’Neill. “There’s a lot going on. It can be simply enjoyed as an album, but there are characters, acts, stage directions etc. The listeners can decide on the narrative themselves, but we want them to get lost in it.”
Gary and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs are on production duties, and the duo comment:
We had really enjoyed their debut LP ‘Guitar Music’ – the knowing title and the freedom with which they were prepared to sabotage their melodies with noise really spoke to us. But underneath all of that restless experimentalism and layers of chaos it was clear that there was some very sophisticated songwriting going on. So we were really excited to see how they approached their follow up LP. The recording of a second album can be the most consequential time in an artists career – either the moment that their ability catches up with their enthusiasm and the real magic happens, or conversely the struggle to follow up on that first flush of inspiration (the dreaded sophomore slump). We knew as soon as we heard the demos that Courting were taking the step up to the next level.
Anyway – we could go on and on about how this is one of those bands of an increasingly rare breed – a group of people who need each other, personally and creatively, and how that translates through the music…but that would all be distraction from the main point here – that Courting have really stepped up to the moment and made an incredible pop album (every song sounds like a hit to us!), without compromise and without fear.”
So, some new music. Out now, ‘Throw’ is a coiled, indie rock thumper, a piece of songwriting that is both intricate and very immediate, open but also impactful.
Murphy O’Neill says: “We wanted to write a song with a plot twist, a song that could be described as ‘an epic’. Lamenting a past love, our protagonist returns to ‘the city’, and remembers, misremembers, and forgets just about everything that has happened beforehand. Drawing a blank, they pray to be wished away to a simpler time.”
Tune in now.
—
Catch Courting at the following shows:
February
6 Cambridge Portland Arms
7 Brighton CHALK
8 Reading Facebar
9 London Dingwalls
10 Birmingham The Rainbow
12 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
13 Nottingham The Bodega Social Club
14 Manchester YES
16 Glasgow King Tuts
17 Edinburgh The Mash House
18 Newcastle The Cluny
19 Sheffield The Leadmill
20 Southampton The Joiners
21 Norwich Voodoo Daddy’s
22 Bristol Exchange
—
Photo Credit: Charlie Barclay Harris
