Listen to Courting’s “wall of guitars and drums” on new single ‘After You’

Courting have shared a new single called ‘After You’ – you can listen to it below.

The song serves as the second preview of the Liverpool band’s duality-themed third album ‘Lust For Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’, out March 14 Lower Third (pre-order/pre-save here).

• READ MORE: Courting tell us about their mouthful of a new album: “We’ve balance our love of pop songs and more experimental stuff”

Speaking about the raw, distorted and thrashing tune, frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neill explained: “‘After You’ was the first song that we wrote for ‘Lust For Life…’. It is an exercise in direct songwriting, an attempt to create something very straightforward.

“We wanted the wall of guitars and the drums to feel almost hypnotic. A lot of the album is about the idea of duality, and lyrically – the song can be read in either a stalkerish voice or a romantic voice. It’s all up to you.”

Following on from lead single ‘Pause At You’, this latest offering boasts a driving rhythm section and creates what a press release calls “an unsettling unease that lingers” for the listener. It adds: “The track encapsulates the album’s essence, particularly through the lyric: ‘Can we split off in groups of two?‘”

‘After You’ arrives with a black-and-white official music video, directed by the band’s longtime collaborator Charlie Barclay-Harris. Tune in here:

The forthcoming ‘Lust For Life…’ follows on from Courting’s 2022 debut ‘Guitar Music’ and 2024’s ‘New Last Name’.

Speaking to NME about the concept of the new LP last November, Murphy-O’Neill said: “The album really revolves around a theme of duality, two titles, two figures on the cover, black and white.

“I loved the idea of taking a short, almost cliché classic title and then adding a post-ramble to it. I guess it kind of sums up our approach on this record: short and concise and at the same time considered and elaborate.”

He continued: “‘Lust For Life’ is just such a great album title – Iggy Pop, Lana… so on and so on. I wanted to add our own little branch to a title which already has so much storied history and lore. In some ways our album does criss-cross over the line of a more ‘classic’ rock approach and then also into something more extreme and bizarre, so it made sense to have two titles.”

According to Murphy-O’Neill, the duality theme “started with the title, then we started realising that a lot of songs seemed to exist in pairs on the album”.

“From then on, this influenced the artwork, colour scheme. We often benefit from creating a set of rules or guidelines to follow when writing an album. For example, ordering the songs alphabetically or as acts in a play,” he told NME.

“We have long been trying to balance our love of pop songs, and more ambitious, experimental stuff. This album is where they finally sit by side in the way that we want them to.”

NME recently listed ‘Lust For Life…’ as one of the “most anticipated album releases of 2025” alongside new full-length projects from the likes of The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey and Sam Fender.

Courting are set to embark on a UK headline tour this March. Find any remaining tickets here, and see the full schedule below.

Courting’s 2025 UK tour dates are: 

MARCH

15 – Dark Arts at Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds

31 – The Grove, Newcastle

APRIL 

01 – SWG3 (Warehouse), Glasgow 

03 – The Bodega, Nottingham 

04 – Gorilla, Manchester

05 – Yellow Arch Studio, Sheffield 

07 – Thekla, Bristol 

08 – Mama Roux’s, Birmingham

09 – Oslo, London