Liverpool’s experimental rockers Courting take Wonderland track-by-track through their unpredictable and thrilling third album.

Courting’s new master opus is refreshingly unexpected. From the emotive strings of the intro and the eerie electronica of “Stealth Rollback” to the charming garage rock of “Namcy” and sprawling brilliance of “Lust for Life”, the Liverpudlian quartet stretch their stylistic boundaries playfully yet potently, proving a fiercely creative and nuanced force within the UK alternative guitar music stratosphere. 

The record, which boasts one of the longest album titles of the year undoubtedly, coined Lust for Life Or: ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’, is erratic and atmosphere-laden, but also endearing and effervescent. It’s a band fully finding their free-wheeling sound, lyrically sharper than ever, sonically fearless and deftly daring. 

Wonderland get the lowdown of the stellar record, in our latest track-by-track.

Listen to the album…

Read the band’s analysis…

“Rollback Intro”

The string arrangement here is taken from the final melody played on the closing track, but then built up into something beautiful rather than deconstructed into something sharp and aggressive. The idea was to write two songs that start the exact same way but then take completely different directions. 

“Stealth Rollback”

“Stealth Rollback” is the most obvious example of the duality concept we wanted to employ throughout the album. Named after the rollercoaster at Thorpe Park, the song employs a similar structure to how that ride comes right back after a misfire- It’s a little bit of a false start in that sense, instead of setting the scene for the album, it makes things feel a little bit sharp and jittery. A lot of the lyrics in the second part were written early in the writing process, and became a manifesto of sorts for the record.

“Pause at You”

We were listening to a lot of the A-Side of “Heroes” by David Bowie when we wrote this, and wanted to utilise more rock piano. I think on that record specifically, Bowie captures such an interesting side of early punk / post-punk that is a slightly less trodden and more interesting path than the more jagged, groove based one in my opinion. The lyrics are stuffed with random asides about stalking, cheating, voyeurism, etc – cliches about New York City and leather jacket pomp mixed with a more obvious chorus and an e-bow solo to fit.

“Namcy”

“Namcy” is a song we’ve wanted to write for a long time, it’s kind of big and stupid and meant to be listened to as such. It’s very referential, lyric wise. It came about on tour last year, and we wanted to catch the energy of a very live, 2000s indie rock band. It’s the nostalgia trip of the album really.

“Eleven Sent (This Time)”

This is a song we’ve had for quite a while. It has existed in a lot of forms from hyperpop to a sort of baroque string arrangement with no drums. We settled here with this mix of horns / strings alongside skittery drum machines and baggy drum patterns. I’m really pleased with the verse set to the prose of a joke written upon the back of a pack of beers, as I’m not sure anyone has really done that before. There is something a little bit morbidly funny about the final chorus, but I hope people see the sweet side of it – the ending isn’t canon to the story, just a way of flirting.

“After You”

We wrote “After You” right after “New Last Name”. It was an attempt of rejecting the earlier more structurally complex songs that we were writing in favour of something straight to the point and simple, as a writing exercise. It might be the most obvious song that we have. We played this song for 30 days in a row on tour in Europe, which kind of shifted it from something hypnotic and shoegaze-y into something more aggressive and abrasive. 

“Lust for Life”

By giving our album two titles, we can slightly (jokingly) avoid the weight that the first holds in musical canon. However, calling a song Lust for Life instantly sets some pretty heavy expectations. 

For the first part, we were kind of shooting towards a sophisti-pop type lounge vibe, combining a whistle synth with a really beautiful sax part. The second is a bit of a murder ballad, with me donning some form of impersonation whilst we jam on this kind of melancholy Americana chord progression. Lyrically, it is about a credit card scam, and consequently about death. I think it might be one of the saddest things we’ve ever put to music.

“Likely place for them to be”

This might be my favourite song we have. It sets the same string melody from the intro to a really sharp guitar at 180bpm and just keeps going, and going. As a band, it feels very therapeutic, as every single instrument is difficult to play in such a way that it feels relieving when we get to the final section. I find it quite funny that the last vocal on this album is not some deep lyrical revelation but just a scream.

For me, this is our perfect closer – we’ve toyed around before with having big, dramatic, album endings and sometimes they just don’t sit quite right with me. This sets everything to rights, a good place to leave things. I wanted the final section to feel a little bit similar to “The End” by The Beatles – the idea of giving everyone a solo, but instead of duelling prettily, these guitars kind of go out with a section of cacophonous noise instead. If we didn’t write anymore music, this would be my favourite way to end things.