Courting shifts genre and style once more. They are like a shark or Bob Dylan. If they stop moving, they no longer have the pursuit and energy found in their lyrics, in their often changing but always steady instrumentals. There is some soft provocation to the band which makes After You, their second single before Lust for Life, all the better. Short and punchy thrills from a band whose efforts just keep getting better. Thread the needle with those liberating motorcycle drives, the push close to whatever The Edge now is, wherever it is, on the back of a vehicle cutting through the night. After You is a mighty track which hears Courting, once again, grasp an image and style closely matching the popular sparks of alternative rock and the indie scene, but with a slight jagged edge to keep it uniquely their own.
Find out what you can about After You, then, from the song itself. No good searching around for interviews on the track, it leads to Reddit threads on not following up on job interviews, for whatever reason. No, we are left to our own devices here, the split into groups of two and the sincerity of a generous command is the core of After You. Courting feels for a sound a little harsher than their New Last Name noise, and it is a welcome change. A song which has the energetic scope, the ongoing instrumental flourishes, to continue ad infinitum. But it ends as suddenly as it starts, a welcome choice for After You where the wheels keep on turning. Think on what the groups of two mean, or not. There is a brilliant track from Courting here but the isolationism at its heart, this desire for just one and another, is clear.
Play it enough and you can feel the roar of the engine matched by the heavy guitar open. After You is a rush of thrills, of being carried away by the open road and the dreams of some idealistic, immediate future. Not quite escapism, because there is nothing to escape from, it is something to escape to. After You finds the line, the edge, where adrenalin carries over and moulds the brain into some new spot of acceptance. This heaviness is found in the rock revival noise, a doubling down of what made New Last Name so intense. Gone is the vocal manipulation. After You is a straight-shooting track where the focus is on lyrical intent and instrumental impression, rather than any sleight of hand in the studio.
Crucially, though, it is not a shift away from the quality Courting provides. There are few things cooler than motorbikes in a black-and-white music video. Courting knows this and it is why they deploy both on After You, a song where sinking or swimming is not defined by how you paddle through life but by how you choose to move. The theatrics of their previous releases are still heard but Courting is chasing a more conventional sound. Crucially though, this is not for the sake of mass appeal. Courting already has that if you sift through their noise rock and soft flourishes of glitch pop. After You is great fun and has a slick, staggering message deep in there too. That much is undeniable, and unavoidable, and the freedom of the open road can be a source of inspiration even for those who cannot drive.
