Review | Courting – Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’

Label: Lower Third

By Jamie Bean

Liverpool-based electronic rock band Courting are back with a quick turnaround from their last album, to bring us their mouthful of a record, ‘Lust for Life, Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’.

Being the third album in their diverse discography, the band describing this project as ‘the second in a trilogy’ leaves some odd-shaped shoes to fill. Ranging from the catchy indie rock records reminiscent of Sports Team, such as ‘Grand National‘, to punky, almost hyperpop-inspired epics like ‘Guitar Music‘, I would’ve expected Courting to settle into a certain groove amidst their intense experimentation.

However, this new record has thrown a multitude of eggs on my face by balancing almost every sound they’ve attempted in a conservative 26 minutes.

Early fans of the outfit will not be disappointed, with songs like ‘Pause At You’ not sounding so out of place if one were to hear it on their first EP; meanwhile, the band calls back to their emotionally chaotic electronic soundscapes with songs like ‘Stealth Rollback’ and the title track ‘Lust for Life’.

Courting are doing an excellent job appealing to the manically indecisive subsection of their audience, switching sounds from track to track, and on one occasion, within the confines of a single song; a carefully crafted disarray that will keep even those with the shortest attention span possible rocking along.

Another commendation of Courting is Sean Murphy-O’Neill’s witty and on-the-nose writing style, that continues in this album. My favourite example is the critical love song ‘Eleven Sent (This Time)’ that’s reminiscent of ‘Jumper’ from their first album, both being relatably realistic to any hopeless romantics.

The theme of romance is present throughout the whole album, playing the foil to a more problematic theme of creepiness. Courting are no stranger to discussing controversial relationships between people, often using toxicity as a tool in their songwriting, especially during their second album ‘New Last Name’.

But again they seem to shy away from presenting this subject as a major theme as they have done previously and instead relegate it to singable wordplay like the repetition of ‘Somebody Stop Me’ in their lead single ‘Pause at You’.

As we listen along, we are taken on a lyrical journey of the character’s various unhealthy romantic obsessions with a tentative conclusion that the character has hit a breaking point and redeemed themselves, never again to be doomed to another romantic failure.

Finishing on a chaotic, blaring crescendo – reaching the most intense part of the album to represent the ending of this arc – is thrillingly effective, matched in genius by concluding with a familiar melody that’s identical to the one found in the introductory song. Maybe the subject of this entire ordeal succeeded in threading the needle, but never came out the other side.

Short, creepily poetic but equally sweet, this new record is both a messy return to form while also lacking the bold direction of their previous work. With serious improvements to production quality and instrumentation, I believe Courting has more potential than they have ever had, and this attempt is simply spread too thin.

‘Lust For Life‘ feels like an amalgamation of every drop of the band’s discography, failing to create any individual merit and instead relying on the quality foundations from which it was formed.

Saying this, the most average Courting album is still more creative and interesting than most modern rock. Despite showing potential, it does not live up to the peaks set by their previous selves and is pulled in too many different directions to show any predominant new ideas.

Instead, we are left with a quality selection of above-average indie/electronic rock songs spanning a wide range of influences and sounds that is undeniably fun and worth your time.