Preview The Courteeners
Manchester's current biggest musical exports come to the Academy
Preview: The Courteeners
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The Courteeners are back on the road after ducking off the radar for a while, following quick and plentiful commercial attention subsequent to their 2008 debut. Knowing when to take a break from popping up regularly on T4 and concentrate on producing some fresh material spared them overkill just in the nick of time.
It appears that the music industry just can’t help being bringing our attention to the Manchester foursome though. Since returning, they appeared on the cover of NME last month, have confirmed appearances at 2010 festivals Isle of Wight, Benicassim, T in the Park and V, and announced that they will support a Mr Noel Gallagher at his Teenage Cancer Trust gig in London on 25th March, his first solo performance since Oasis’s split.
The Courteeners re-emerge with second album Falcon under their wings, which was released on 22nd February and is proving wrong those who deemed them incapable of living up to their own hype. It was given 8 out of 10 in its glowing review from NME, and the new sound is described by Clint Boon on his Xfm show as ‘dark disco, in a good way’.
This description definitely befits the album’s brooding first single ‘You Overdid It Doll’, which went straight into the top 40 on its release, reaching number 28. Not as high a position as ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ or ‘What Took You So Long’ from first album St Jude, but it has long been the way with indie music that the most revered works tend not to be those everyone rushes out to buy. Just look at The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen or the Velvet Underground, to name but a few. A tad bold to compare the Courteeners with such greats as these, sure, but illustrative of the point in case all the same.
As everyone knows, the general rule for a follow-up album is that it must be emblematic of some sort of maturing, or at least that’s what the press would have you believe with their consistent and clichéd references to ‘growing up’ in their critiques of any artist’s successive work. As it happens, the Courteeners do seem to have grown up. (Sorry.) No-one will be declaring that Falcon is the second coming, not by any account. Yet the move from jovial indie-pop telling of drunken flirting and cocky camaraderie, to a more ominous sound laced with a much wiser and reflective voice, shows that some attempt has been made to interpret lessons learned, both musical and personal.
See what we mean when they arrive in Leeds at the end of this month.
The Courteeners are playing Leeds Academy on 26th March, 7pm. Sold out, returns only
Posted on Wednesday 3rd March 2010
Rebecca Ryder
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