Today, Liverpool four-piece Courting have shared a new single titled “Emily G”. The track follows the band’s recent 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. The album is due for release on January 26 via Lower Third.
The single is released following a cryptic trail that fans were able to follow in the run up to the release. A play on the psychological hoax that began in the 1980’s with Ever Dream This Man?, Courting created a replica poster replaced the image of ‘The Man’ with the AI generated image of Emily G (the single’s artwork). Fans were led to the posters using co-ordinates and upon scanning the QR code – they were able to hear a teaser of the upcoming track.
This scavenger hunt nods to the concept running throughout the new records. 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” set the tone for the record as the first act in this play and also a prelude to a narrative flashback. “Emily G” serves as the end of that narrative flashback and as the end of the first act. The song sees the band combining upbeat guitars with hyperactive synth lines and a danceable rhythm section. The track is yet another consummate example of the underlying maturity in the band’s new sound and how this evolution continues to paint a much bigger picture.
Going on to speak about the single, Murphy O’Neill says, “‘Emily G’ is the center piece of the album, the 5th act of our play. She is a story found in a magazine and a real person. A tale of right place, wrong time. Something to dance to.”
Listen to “Emily G” via all platforms HERE
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. 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. 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.”
