Today, Liverpool four-piece Courting have shared a new single titled “We Look Good Together (Big Words)”, which features guest production work from lauded London electronic duo DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ.
The track follows the band’s 2023 return with details of their highly anticipated new album “New Last Name”, which was recorded in collaboration with indie heroes Gary and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, who worked closely with the band on production duties for a number of tracks. The album is due for release on 26th January 2024 via Lower Third.
“New Last Name” is an album as adventurous thematically as it is sonically – but as it’s title suggests, it hints at new beginnings. “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.”
Recent single “Throw”, and “Emily G”, bookend the first half of the album. Whilst the former serves as a prelude, the new single “We Look Good Together (Big Words)”, marks the opening of the performance, and sees the band continue to develop their steadily maturing, explorative sound with funk-pop guitar lines and love song inspired lyrics.
Going on to speak about the single, Murphy O’Neill says, “‘We Look Good Together’ is a love song, plain and simple. It’s the opening part of the main theatrical narrative of ‘New Last Name’. Titles fall, the scene is set, and the band starts to play.”
From the baroque strings in “Flex” or even the country-tinged stylings of “Babys”, it would be an understatement to call “New Last Name” adventurous. That’s all before you even come onto the drum and bass drumming of the vibrant and vital “Happy Endings”. Brimming with nuance and pop culture references, the only constant is that the Liverpool group maintain their irrepressible sense of abandon.
Going on to speak about the album, Murphy O’Neill says, “I’ll admit that New Last Name isn’t really a play. Whilst it IS tied together by a narrative thread – it’s actually a collection of our most contained pop songs, and strangest experiments sat side by side.
New Last Name is unrestrained and chaotic. At the same time, it is more focused and detail-oriented than anything we’ve done before. New Last Name is a study in contradictions, and it’s the best damn play south of the north pole.”
That play goes on the road next year, with the band also having announced a new run of EU / UK tour dates to take place in Spring next year. Alongside the new single, the band have today announced their tour supports for these dates which include Cosmorat, Flat Party, Duvet, Saloon Dion, and Sterling Press. Having cemented themselves as a must-see live act, Courting recently toured as main support for Circa Waves and just last month sold-out a headline performance in their hometown within ten minutes of announcing it. The band also toured “Guitar Music” extensively last Autumn as well as performing at multiple summer festivals including Reading & Leeds Festival, Wide Eyed Festival, Latitude, Truck Festival, Live At Leeds, Community Festival, and The Great Escape. They also came together earlier this year for “The Wedding” – a hometown wedding-themed show which saw the band unveil new material for the first time – which NME reviewed, describing them as “one of the most innovative and elevated acts of the moment.”
