GutterPutter

Courting is a band that might need a bit of introduction. To start off, they are from Liverpool in the United Kingdom and they are a relatively recent name as they were formed in 2018. They are definitely indie for sure, but their musical style mixes hyperpop’s postmodern electro-pop punk aggression and post-punk’s inventiveness in its bits of simplicity. They are by no means as big or the names we associate with the Windmill Scene like the no-longer-existing Black Midi, yet they are making their way in the music world thanks to the positive reactions to their albums.

Lust For Life is their latest album which is only a shortened version of Lust For Life, Or; ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’. There is definitely a conceptual outlook to it and, in a way that seemingly rings true to the full title, the album has the brevity to push us to make the most of it. It stands at just over 25 minutes long and it consists only of 8 songs that lasts on average three minutes aside from two tracks. At least for a start, the beginning in ‘Rollback Intro’ contains a melodic sequence that lasts for only forty seconds, consisting of a violin that gradually builds up in layering and progression. It is gorgeous and it’s a shame that with such a beginning, you would have thought that it is a chamber pop album.

For fans of such genre, at least they would be pleased to find a reference to Belle and Sebastian in ‘Namcy’ with a shout-out to ‘Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying’. Yet, listening to the actual music itself is a usual pop punk tune with some allusion towards melodrama, a jangly kind of riff, and a clear focus towards the major key. If you are hoping for anything more, then it’s probably for the best to not get your hopes up frankly. There’s a Talking Heads-esque new wave cut in ‘Pause At You’ thanks in part to its clicking-like guitar notes and a more unconventional percussion. That is until the chorus when the autotune comes through and the whole instrumental changes to a power pop-oriented focus. 

Therein lies the frustration with a lot of Lust For Life’s music. The reality is that a lot of Courting’s ideas and technical prowess are really good. Frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neill is a good singer, the guitar playing is distinctive enough to stand out while still being catchy, and the drumming proves impactful without overshadowing the whole music. The issue lies largely in what feels like a whole load of inconsistency without a convincing enough concept to justify it. Remember the full title? It might land on the “other side” aspect but it fails to deliver in the abbreviation. When you have ‘Eleven Sent (This Time)’ and ‘Stealth Rollback’, you respectively have pop punk and electro-rock. However, they don’t converge into a certain blend that makes it wholly appealing as per say. It would be like 100 gecs without the industrial abrasiveness to give life to their electropop music. Instead, it feels as if they’re less than a whole of their parts. The potential is there as is the case with ‘Rollback Intro’.

The best songs in Lust For Life come right at the end. When the title track starts, the album’s potential is at its most apparent. Clocking in at six and a half minutes, it has a multi-part structure that makes for a refreshing tidbit. It redeems a lot of the album with its relative bits of disappointment. From its downtempo, more psychedelic first third to the horn-fuelled middle and to its more bluesy outro that is reminiscent of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Scar Tissue’, ‘Lust For Life’ ebbs along with the struggles of living. ‘Likely place for them to be’ caps off the whole album in a circular way through its guitar riff which is, note for note, virtually the same as in ‘Rollback Intro’. The crescendo in the end as the instrumentals pick up make for a catharsis that pays off with a solo guitar performance; it’s largely a shame otherwise that the scream just before the instrumentals begins to develop can come off as being unwarranted.

Thus marks the end of Lust For Life. Courting definitely shows that they have the prowess and the creativity to line up for some off-kilter tracks. The main problem however lies in the lack of cohesion. It feels at times that the band aims to make a few homage to their biggest influences only for a lot of them to be imitative rather than affectionate. This inconsistency runs throughout the album and it’s this point that could have sunk the whole project down. It is through luck that the last two tracks just so happen to embody a lot of the band’s stronger efforts. Respected music critic Robert Christgau would have his special rating of “choice cuts” for singling out noteworthy tracks on an otherwise unremarkable record. Fans of British indie rock are in it for a treat with ‘Lust For Life’ and ‘Likely place for them to be’ even if it means ignoring the rest of the album aside from the brief intro.

2.2/5