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

Lower Third

The heavily pop-fuelled antics of Liverpool's Courting return with their third album in three years, the short and sweetly titled Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell the Story. The boys have been busy: pushing their pop palettes; touring North America and, of course, recording their latest project. 

Spurred on by a riff-y, catchy sense of guitar, the early days of Courting were of a more 'Punk" nature. Inklings of a pop manifesto were sprinkled throughout. Time moves on and so did Courting as Guitar Music caught wind and an air of experimentation drifted through the bands material. Once again, flecks of pop sensibilities shone through. Although the album was called Guitar Music, the electronically tinkered sounds which lace the albums runtime could be referred to as anything but - although they were indeed made by guitars via warping, treating their effective essence. While the signature Courting twist was added, New Last Name saw a more straight forward pop essence take hold - pop was now to be the main ingredient rather than an additional feature. Now here we are with album number three - a mish-mash of their two previous efforts. 

Lust for Life's opener "Rollback Intro" sets the frame - we're welcomed into the world of Lust for Life with gorgeous strings and an effervescent, delightfully spring-cleaning quality, only for "Stealth Rollback" to completely obliterate said frame. It's fair to say that the rug is firmly pulled from under the listener's feet. Think of it as strolling through a lavish Victorian dinner as the candles begin to flicker from subwoofer frequencies; walls begin to crumble as a Boiler Room set suddenly kicks off and pulls you out of your slumber. A kick in the teeth finds you on the receiving end of reality. 

The rolling-like qualities of what, to me, sound like a casino slot machine welcome us into what was to be the first single released in the run-up to Lust for Life, "Pause at You". What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. 

SOMEBODY STOP ME. 

My favourite single of the bunch - "After You" - is a certified top-notch banger. In years to come you may just find it on compilations of the best that the 2020's has to offer. "After You" comes to a close and the pace is taken down a step. Title track "Lust for Life" eases into itself. The track changes course multiple times over its six-plus-minute runtime before cutting itself short through what you could only call a cliff-hanger. 

The strings that we rode into Lust for Life on are incorporated into the final track "Likely place for them to be". It's a bookend which sandwiches the album nicely. 

Glass eyes and Irish goodbyes; blondes and their curls; cliff-hangers and fame; the uncertainty of youth and the hope that it may just last forever. Don't get carried away, this happens all the time.

At 25 minutes in length, you just can't go wrong.