Liverpool four-piece Courting have shared a new single titled “Emily G”. The track follows the band’s recent return with details of their highly anticipated new album “New Last Name”, which was recorded in collaboration with indie heroes Gary and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs. The album is due for release on 26th January. They band will also be going on the road, bringing them to The Joiners, Southampton, in February.
The single is released following a cryptic trail that fans were able to follow in the run up to the release. A play on the psychological hoax that began in the 1980s with Ever Dream This Man?, Courting created a replica poster replaced the image of ‘The Man’ with the AI generated image of Emily G (the single’s artwork). Fans were led to the posters using co-ordinates and upon scanning the QR code – they were able to hear a teaser of the upcoming track.
This scavenger hunt nods to the concept running throughout the new record, “New Last Name.”
“It’s a theatrical play within an album,” explains 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 single “Throw” set the tone for the record as the first act in this play and also a prelude to a narrative flashback. “Emily G” serves as the end of that narrative flashback and as the end of the first part. The song sees the band combining upbeat guitars with hyperactive synth lines and a danceable rhythm section.
Murphy O’Neill says, “‘Emily G’ is the centrepiece of the album, the 5th act of our play. She is a story found in a magazine and a real person. A tale of right place, wrong time. Something to dance to.”
The band have announced a new run of EU / UK tour dates to take place early next year. Courting recently toured as main support for Circa Waves and last month sold-out a headline performance in their hometown within ten minutes of announcing it. The band also toured “Guitar Music” extensively last Autumn as well as performing at multiple summer festivals including Reading & Leeds Festival, Wide Eyed Festival, Latitude, Truck Festival, Live At Leeds, Community Festival, and The Great Escape. 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 – which NME reviewed, describing them as “one of the most innovative and elevated acts of the moment.”
The UK dates are:
6/2 – Portland Arms, Cambridge
7/2 – CHALK, Brighton
8/2 – Facebar, Reading
9/2 – Dingwalls, London
10/2 – The Rainbow, Birmingham
12/2 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
13/2 – The Bodega Social Club, Nottingham
14/2 – YES, Manchester
16/2 – King Tuts, Glasgow
17/2 – The Mash House, Edinburgh
18/2 – The Cluny, Newcastle
19/2 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
20/2 – The Joiners, Southampton
21/2 – Voodoo Daddy’s, Norwich
22/2 – Exchange, Bristol
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