Courting’s second album is a wild ride. ‘New Last Name’ is like The 1975’s Matty Healy and The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas fronting landfill indie and pop-punk bands that, through a time travel twist, came up on Black Midi’s prog-jazz and Black Country, New Road’s art-rock.
If Courting’s 2022 debut ‘Guitar Music’ sounded like a throwdown between post-punk and hyperpop, then this is something else entirely. In an attempt to critique pop culture’s cyclical nature, the band have torn down their own sound in order to inhabit pop tropes from the past. It’s not a million miles away from being knocked senseless by a brick-sized iPod.
One second you’re in a Brooklyn basement experiencing the garage-rock revival (Throw), the next, you’re coming down to glitchy sophisti-pop at Reading & Leeds (We Look Good Together).
And, whether they’re comparing the complexities of modern relationships to rising supermarket prices and the cost of living crisis (The Hills) or audibly typing out emails (Flex), Courting also lace the chaos with lyrics of substance.
It works until it doesn’t. The Hills switches from indie-rock to avant-jazz and back again and yet it sounds like Courting backing Jimmy Fallon with classroom instruments. Elsewhere, Babys is a brass band covering pop classics — a frustrating novelty.
But by the time Happy Endings brings digicore to dingy bars, Courting have moved beyond sounding like they’re making it up as they go along and into something more unhinged. 'New Last Name' is head-spinning and, eventually, any complaints about its genre-hopping sprawl are consumed by the sheer audacity of it all.
Courting Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue February 06 2024 - CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms
Wed February 07 2024 - BRIGHTON DUST
Thu February 08 2024 - READING Face Bar
Fri February 09 2024 - LONDON Dingwalls
Sat February 10 2024 - BIRMINGHAM Rainbow
Mon February 12 2024 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Tue February 13 2024 - NOTTINGHAM Bodega Social Club
Wed February 14 2024 - MANCHESTER YES (The Pink Room)
Fri February 16 2024 - GLASGOW King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
Sat February 17 2024 - EDINBURGH Mash House
Sun February 18 2024 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Cluny 2
Mon February 19 2024 - SHEFFIELD Leadmill
Tue February 20 2024 - SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
Wed February 21 2024 - NORWICH Voodoo Daddy's Showroom
Thu February 22 2024 - BRISTOL Exchange
Fri May 24 2024 - LIVERPOOL Hangar 34
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