Courting – We Look Good Together Review

Very big words for a soon-to-be big band. Rest assured the competent charms of Courting will move to the top, where The 1975 is, or was a decade ago. Heartless comparisons. People hear a well-tuned guitar and thick of audible muck. Trust in Courting to return us to quality patches of land. We Look Good Together (Big Words) has plenty of opportune pop sentiments to it but has the Courting tinge, the drum machines and distortion still welcomed and prevalent for this one. Plucky lyrics of love being for a meaning and not just for the sake of it are filtered through too, experienced charms with a surprising, upbeat sentimentality to it.  

But worked over by Courting, those momentous charms of swaying along to the beat of a love song take on new meaning. We Look Good Together (Big Words) enjoys a responsible electronic boom which can level the four-piece as Daft Punk-adjacent, not near to the charmless wobblings of Matt Healy and friends. No. Courting is its own beast and though this slice of New Last Name may be the weakest of the bunch, it is still a head above the rest in the alternative indie market. Stocking up on supplies of well-intended tunes from this genre is harder and harder, but Courting has cut through the thick and horrid fog with a delightful number which can stand alongside the likes of Throw and Flex. Neat stuff, a light and sharp piece where shortness is key. 

Emily G is where the length of this singles collection went – and for Courting to show they can do just as much good over long-form singles as well as the three-minute standards is reassuring and welcoming. We Look Good Together (Big Words) is a great track to level the restless brain, one which is fixated in a spiral of emails, new tunes and illness recovery. Courting will not cure your brain rot nor remove the cold from your nose but they will provide a wonderful piece of jangling, self-aware guitar pop. Those familiar brushes with the past, drumming them up for the future, are exceptionally worked. Lacklustre sequels to love never to be had again is a chilling reality Courting centres on here, and with sharp focus it moves the track along nicely.  

Key to this is striking out at the cliché of love in song. Courting presents and to a larger extent, represents, the change in form to how listeners can indulge themselves in the soppy details. Few are out there with the instrumental and instructive capabilities to turn those heady days of connecting with another person into a unique story. We Look Good Together (Big Words) is filled with the reflective purpose of those romanticisms yet never feels like it slackens its grip on the reality of its situation, the obsession which takes hold and the fear of being burnt by someone you love. Courting may find themselves compared to The 1975 with this one, but it is no secret their style is far stronger, and their message throughout is far more in touch with the realities of life.