Search Results for:

LOWER THIRD

Courting

Lust For Life, Or: 'How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story'

    'Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story', is centred around duality. The intention is to bring together everything Courting have created thus far into a succinct, direct, record.

    Each song on the album is 'twinned', with another, existing within the same type of world. Take for example the opening and closing bookends of the record, both featuring the same string melody but with the first serving as an orchestral introduction, and the second as a speeding dance punk track. Tracks 2 and tracks 8 interpolate the same drum and string samples but shift them into completely different beasts. The first sitting somewhere between 2010's dubstep and a noise band covering a small faces track, and the latter being a multi part, auto-tune crooning ballad with a striking saxophone solo. 

    The aim is clear as Courting balance the indie & pop songwriting of their previous records with their most experimental moments, each detail more refined than the last time.


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: Tastefully lurching between angular, funk-adjacent garage rock and anthemic pop-punk, Courting's sound has never been so meticulously balanced and as seamlessly smooth as this. A band keen to defy convention, the juxtaposition of these pieces is as fascinating as their fluidity and variety.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Rollback Intro
    2. Stealth Rollback
    3. Pause At You
    4. Namcy
    5. Eleven Sent (This Time)
    6. After You
    7. Lust For Life
    8. Likely Place For Them To Be
    9. Rollback Intro
    10. Stealth Rollback
    11. Pause At You
    12. Namcy

    Maximo Park

    Stream Of Life

      'Stream Of Life' finds Maximo Park in perhaps the most reflective state they’ve been in. Lead singer Paul Smith, this most lit-pop of lyric writers, took the album title from a short story by Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, inspired by both its stream of consciousness style and the way it prompts reflection on the inner mechanisms of people's minds. It begs the question of why they do the things that they do, even when they can seem counterintuitive to the outsider. There's an inner flow to every individual - a stream of life.

      Commenting on the album, lead singer Paul Smith says: “We've always tried to document the world around us at each stage of our lives while subtly nudging the music forward each time - this record continues that mission. It was great to be back in a studio after recording remotely last time. Working with Ben in Atlanta, and Burke in Byker, was as stimulating as it's ever been, and I think we captured that energy. Thematically, the record covers passion, politics, and privilege amongst other topics".

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Your Own Worst Enemy
      2. Favourite Songs
      3. Dormant 'Til Explosion (Feat. Vanessa Briscoe Hay)
      4. The End Can Be As Good As The Start
      5. Armchair View
      6. Quiz Show Clue
      7. Stream Of Life
      8. Doppelganger Eyes
      9. I Knew That You'd Say That
      10. The Path I Chose
      11. No Such Thing As A Society

      Courting

      New Last Name

        Liverpool-based four piece; Courting returns with the first act from their upcoming sophomore album, 'New Last Name'. The new album came together as a play, even though the band admits that 'New Last Name' isn’t really a play...

        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.”

        The results are as thrilling as they are rewarding. 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.


        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: Though the style of Courting's 'New Last Name' veers drastically from neon hyper-pop melodies to slow, minimalistic post-hardcore, it is in essence a hugely inventive and blazingly new sounding punk record. Huge, mad mayhem.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Throw
        2. We Look Good Together (Big Words)
        3. The Hills
        4. Flex
        5. Emily G
        6. Babys
        7. The Wedding
        8. Happy Endings
        9. America


        Latest Pre-Sales

        165 NEW ITEMS

        E-newsletter —
        Sign up
        Back to top