8/10

Liverpool’s Courting have always thrived on contradiction with equal parts chaotic and precise, irreverent yet meticulous. Their third album 'Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story' embodies that ethos entirely, delivering eight tightly wound, high-impact tracks that hit fast and hard before disappearing just as quickly.

With a title that feels both grandiose and tongue-in-cheek, the record fuses a melodic sensibility with unpredictable detours, creating a whirlwind of razor-sharp indie hooks, explosive electronic elements, and leftfield experimentalism. From moments of unhinged, Prodigy-style intensity to effortlessly catchy indie-rock anthems, this is a band embracing the unexpected at every turn.

Clocking in at just eight tracks, the album feels deliberate in its structure, almost symphonic in its symmetry. Each song has a counterpart, reflecting themes of duality that run through the entire project. The opener 'Rollback Intro' introduces an elegant string motif, which resurfaces in the closing track 'Likely Place For Them To Be', only this time, it’s distorted and electrified. Tracks like 'Stealth Rollback' swerve wildly between punk aggression and euphoric synth flourishes, while 'Eleven Sent (This Time)' delivers some of their most instantly addictive hooks to date. Elsewhere, 'Pause at You' channels the raw energy of early 2000s dance-punk, and 'Namcy' proves they can craft straightforward rock brilliance with just as much flair as their more unorthodox moments.

And then there’s 'Lust for Life', the sprawling, shape-shifting centrepiece that may just be the band’s defining moment. Twisting from sparse, eerie atmospherics into something expansive and electrifying, it encapsulates Courting’s refusal to sit still.

As frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neill puts it, the record feels like both a culmination and a turning point; a moment where everything they’ve built so far collides into a concise, exhilarating statement. With 'Lust for Life…', Courting cement themselves as one of the most boldly unpredictable acts in the game, proving once again that their next move will always be impossible to predict.