The Courteeners - Falcon Review

Falcon

The Courteeners

Release Date: 22nd Feb, 2010
Label: Polydor
Genre: Rock

For a band still relatively new to the music business, The Courteeners have already achieved much, including support slots with the legendary Morrissey and Welsh rockers Stereophonics, and a debut album (St. Jude) which garnered positive reviews and bagged them a Best Album award courtesy of The Guardian. Rather than batter the eardrums with out and out rock, the album burns away slowly, from plaintive tracks such as ‘The Opener’ and ‘Take Over The World’ to tracks with a more electronic-pop edge such as the single ‘You Overdid It Doll’ and finally songs with a harder edge like ‘Scratch Your Name Upon My Lips’. Overall, the album is nicely restrained, yet not afraid to spread its wings and soar, much in the vein of groups like Snow Patrol. I was never a fan of The Courteeners’ debut album, but this has made me rethink my evaluation of them – hopefully it will do the same for a fair few newcomers to the band as well.

Reviewed by Pete Muscutt

About The Artist

The Courteeners

The Courteeners are a British indie rock band formed in Manchester, in 2006 by Liam Fray (guitar/vocals), Michael Campbell (drums/backing vocals), Daniel Conan Moores (Guitar), and Mark Cuppello (bass). Whilst studying at the University of Salford, Liam Fray started to perform acoustic sets as a singer-songwriter around Manchester. After getting positive reactions from the crowd, Fray decided to leave University and form a band. He recruited long time friend Michael Campbell. At that time, Campbell had never played the drums in his life. The two friends played under Liam Fray's name. When Conan Moores and Mark Cuppello joined the band, they renamed themselves 'The Courteeners'. All four band members hail from the Middleton area of Greater Manchester, and have known each other since they were ten years old. On the 6th August 2007 they released their first single, 'Cavorting'. On the 22nd October 2007 a second single, 'Acrylic', followed, reaching number 44 in the UK Single Chart. They were signed to Loog records at the time. Producer Stephen Street (known from bands such as Blur and Morrissey approached the band. They started working on the debut album. The band released the first single of this album, 'What Took You So Long?' on 14th January 2008. The single 'Not Nineteen Forever' was released on 31th March 2008. Finally, on the 4th April 2008, they released the debut album, 'St. Jude' on Polydor Records. Morrissey visited one of their concerts in London at the time and said afterwards that he liked their music. Morrissey's name is actually mentioned in the lyrics of 'What Took You So Long?' . At 23th June 2008, The Courteeners released a fifth single; 'No You Didn't, No You Don't'. At 6th October they released another single, 'That Kiss', that was not on the debut album. In January 2009, Liam Fray comfirmed that the band is recording a second album. Fray stated that there were some discussions around the release of this album. The record label wanted the band to sound like Snow Patrol, which is a difference in opinion to the band. Also, no decision has been made as whether Stephen Street will produce the album, or not. Fray did reveal that nine tracks were finished at the time. The tracklist of the album will include 'Bojangles', 'Revolver' and 'Three Months', according to Fray. They played their largest headline show at Manchester Central in December 2009 before a UK tour in March 2010 in support of their new album which was released in February 2010.

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13 Comments

  1. davebutter 11 Dec 2011

    Better than their debut

  2. topjim 01 Apr 2011

    St. Jude is an exciting debut album. This is their difficult 2nd album,, and it shows. Lively up yourselves x

  3. shortstory 26 Jan 2011

    Instant love! Sounds much more mature than St. Jude.

  4. anasbinm7md 28 Aug 2010

    One of the best albums, ever!

  5. powers1234 11 Aug 2010

    It just loses pace for me. It's just not a scratch on St Jude :/ Saying that The Opener and You Overdid It Doll are both really fantastic tunes :) Still a good band.

  6. LewisofEngland 23 Feb 2010

    its ok, gets boring very quickly but it has a much grander scale than St Jude, however i hate you over did it doll!!!

  7. dominic_john 22 Feb 2010

    It's good but not as good as I hoped it to be. I feel that only really Liam's personality comes across in this album and that the other three Courteeners could be anybody. After listening to the whole album it does get slightly boring. That being said, there are some fantastic tracks such as Scatch Your Name Upon My Lips and You Overdid It Doll. 3/5 for me.

  8. jrox05 12 Feb 2010

    This is without a doubt going to be an exciting moment to first hear. I'm expecting it to be disappointing then grow to a level of love with which I only have for St Jude.

  9. joaohenriquebf 09 Feb 2010

    hahahah

  10. joaohenriquebf 09 Feb 2010

    EU DURMO COM QUEM DISPONIBILIZAR!

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