Indie rockers from Liverpool, Courting play music that sets tuneful, energetic melodies against arrangements that incorporate plenty of jagged guitar sounds and off-kilter electronic textures, resulting in a style that's both upbeat and cleverly chaotic. On their 2022 debut album, Guitar Music, Courting delivered a set of witty tunes featuring deadpan satirical lyrics that meshed with songs that suggest a joyous sense of self-sabotage, covering the most accessible aspects of their music with a veneer of sonic contortion that's imaginative and compelling. 2024's New Last Name built on their established sound while punching up the pop hooks in their songs, although they were still rooted in rough-edged guitar bashing.

Courting formed in 2018, featuring Sean Murphy-O’Neill on guitar and vocals, Michael Downes on guitar, Sam Brennan on bass, and Sean Thomas on drums and vocals. When they started, all four of them were still teenagers (Murphy-O’Neill was only 16), and their initial influences included IDLES, Parquet Courts, Pavement, and LCD Soundsystem, as well as Brit-pop icons Blur and Pulp. Murphy-O’Neill began writing songs when he was a 14-year-old dubstep fan, and soon Courting began rehearsing, and he started writing new material with his bandmates. In June 2019, Courting released their first track, "Not Yr Man," and a second, "Football," followed in January 2020. The group earned positive press for May 2020's "David Byrne's Badside," an observation on coming to terms with one's racist friends; the song was later given a vinyl release on a single with "Football." Their next track, "Popshop!," a witty commentary on the balance of art and commerce, appeared in late 2020. Courting issued "Grand National" as a stand-alone track in March 2021 before making it available as part of a four-song EP (also titled Grand National) one month later. By this time, the band started earning a reputation as a live act, but the COVID-19 pandemic took them off the road, and beyond playing a few virtual shows, they focused on writing songs and blocking out plans for their debut album. In April 2022, Courting released a new track, "Tennis." It turned out to be a preview of their first LP, the eight-song Guitar Music, released by Nice Swan Recordings in September 2022. By this time, Michael Downes and Sam Brennan were out of the band, and guitarist Joshua Cope and bassist Conor McCann were added to the lineup.

Guitar Music was well-reviewed in the British press, and Courting toured extensively in the United Kingdom in support. More touring followed in 2023, including a run of dates opening for Circa Waves, and other shows where they road-tested new songs intended for their second album. "Flex" appeared in July 2023, preceding Courting's sophomore LP. Titled New Last Name, the band initially declared that the nine songs were conceived as a play, but they would later walk that back, saying there was a loose narrative connecting the tracks but they were selected on the basis of which represented their best work. The album arrived in January 2024. ~ Mark Deming