Courting

Indie rockers from Liverpool, Courting play music that squares tuneful, energetic melodies against arrangements that incorporate plenty of jagged guitar sounds and off-kilter electronic textures, resulting in a style that's both upbeat and cleverly chaotic. On their 2022 debut album, Guitar Music, the band delivered a set of witty tunes featuring deadpan satirical lyrics that meshed with songs that suggest a joyous sense of self-sabotage, covering the most accessible aspects of their music with a veneer of imaginative sonic contortion. 2024's New Last Name built on the group's established sound while punching up the pop hooks in their songs, even as they were still rooted in rough-edged guitar bashing. 2025's Lust for Life, Or: 'How to Thread the Needle and Come out the Other Side to Tell the Story,' their third album in as many years, managed to be more straightforward and their most structurally ambitious work to date.