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

Speaking on new single, "Pause At You", which is paired to a visualiser directed by Charlie Barclay Harris, vocalist Sean Murphy-O’Neill said: "Pause at You is a culmination of everything we’ve been working on over the last few years - an observation on night time paranoia mixed about with night out ecstasy. Light outing, floor filling, tie undressing, rock."

While their second album, New Last Name, leaned into the idea of a sprawling, theatrical narrative, this time, Courting wanted a more straightforward structure. “I was bored of overthinking,” Murphy-O’Neill admits. “This album is what it is - something immediate, no excess.”

Despite this, the album retains a surprising amount of symmetry and conceptual depth. Murphy-O’Neill explains, “Two titles, artwork in two colours, which features two figures, and has eight tracks, all set up with a twin structure. The opening track, is mirrored by the closer, ‘Likely place,’ with the same looping motif played first with strings, then with a sharp electric guitar buzz.”

Courting have also announced a nine-day run of UK shows starting on 15 March in Leeds' Belgrave Music Hall and ending on 9 April at Hackney's Oslo, with stops in Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield, and more.