THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “New Last Name is an album as adventurous thematically as it is sonically — but as its title suggests, it hints at new beginnings. “It’s a theatrical play within an album,” claims Courting 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 singles 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. “We Look Good Together is a love song, plain and simple,” says Murphy O’Neill. “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.
“I’ll admit that New Last Name isn’t really a play,” Murphy O’Neill finally admits. “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.”
When recording New Last Name, Courting also collaborated in the studio with indie heroes Gary and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, who worked closely with the band on production duties. The results are as thrilling as they are rewarding. “New Last Name is unrestrained and chaotic,” Murphy O’Neill says “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.”
The band toured their 2022 debut album Guitar Music extensively, as well as performing at multiple summer festivals. 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.”
