In 2022, Courting didn’t want to be pop stars. “Don’t wanna be a popstar now / Maybe I’ll think about it later,” vocalist Sean Murphy O’Neill sneered on “Loaded,” a blistering track off their debut album Guitar Music. Clearly, things have changed. The Liverpool band—Murphy O’Neill, Sean Thomas, Josh Cope and Connor McCann—returned in 2023 with “Flex,” the lead single from their second album New Last Name, and it was their most saccharine and approachable song yet. On it, Murphy-O’Neill brags, “Now that I’m a popstar / I’ve been smoking all the time.” Sometimes, to become an international icon of popular music, you simply have to decide you are one. And Courting has made that decision.
New Last Name foregos the eccentricities of Guitar Music in favor of music that more closely matches their lofty ambitions—out with sarcastic talk-singing, and in with sugar-sweet choruses; out with the punkish sneer; in with the Britpop. While Guitar Music courses with anxiousness and abrasiveness, New Last Name is broad and anthemic. Courting aims for the populism of The Killers’ Hot Fuss or 2000s Arctic Monkeys on singles like “Throw,” “Flex” and “Emily G.”
Courting does keep a few of their quirks. O’Neill’s vocals hop and stutter with autotune, brushing against the guitar-oriented instrumentation; “Babys” sounds like Charli XCX singing on a Teenage Fanclub song. The songs are scratchy from a blown-out mix, which gives New Last Name a lo-fi distortion. But, for the most part, the approach here is standard, good old-fashioned indie rock. “Flex” builds to a trumpet solo, an old trope for a scrappy band looking to expand their instrumentation. The hooks are buoyant and crowd-friendly. They’ve smoothed the edges of older songs like “Tennis” and “Famous” into something more melodic and familiar.
Musically, it works well enough, but O’Neill’s persona at the front of Courting gives the album its true character. He alternates between self-consciousness and ego, humor and pouting, terminal online-ness and pop culture rifling. He makes a statement and takes it back: “But I guess, for a moment, we were involved / Not in a Celine Dion way,” or “I just wanna ball out with my friends / I wish my lifestyle was publicized / Livestream lie in forever.” The whole approach is good-natured, conversational, sardonic and deeply funny. When Courting are pop stars, everything is up for grabs. “Emily G” becomes “Oh, Em G,” and “Throw” refers to, simultaneously, throwbacks, throwing backs out and throwing it back.
On paper, New Last Name may seem like a departure from Guitar Music’s hyperpop-influenced, punkier ilk, but Courting established themselves as a group with a penchant for cosplay. They dressed up as a wedding band and went full emo for the “Throw” music video. But more than their outfits or themed gigs, Courting makes shapeshifting music. Although critics grouped it with post-Brexit post-punk, Guitar Music refused an easy categorization (see: the infectious power pop track “Jumper” or the crunchy electronics on “Cosplay / Twin Cities”). New Last Name continues to demonstrate their capacity for transformation: not just from song to song, but album to album.
Of course, this does make Courting similar to another British four-piece: The 1975. It’s a comparison that the band poke fun at (like on their 2024 Ins/Outs list), bristle at and may even find themselves frustrated by (Courting, if you’re reading this: I apologize. I mean it as a compliment!). But Courting is not 1975-esque in the way that similar-sounding artists like No Rome or The Japanese House are. Courting and The 1975 share an ability to be malleable—to play dress-up as post-punk or Britpop or American pop-punk—while retaining their identity. They both converse in relaxed, internet-speak that’s equally nervous and confident, conceited and witty. That’s what makes them both interesting bands.
The best moments on New Last Name are reminders of Courting’s audaciousness. The group collaborates with DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ on “We Look Good Together (Big Words).” It’s bright, synthetic and the band’s most viable pop moment yet. “The Hills” is mechanical and icy, a spiritual successor to the disorienting “Uncanny Valley Forever.” Courting condenses themselves on New Last Name into smaller, more straightforward indie rock. But the moments when they escape those confines exude with personality and color. They match O’Neill’s post-post-modernist irony more closely. Sometimes, New Last Name feels like they abandoned the very trait that made them pop star-material in the first place.
Andy Steiner is a writer and musician. When he’s not reviewing albums, you can find him collecting ‘80s Rush merchandise. Follow him on Instagram or Twitter.
