I Do Like Courteeners But…

I am very fond of Courteeners. As a band they have some right tunes such as ‘Fallowfield Hillbilly’ and the indie classic ‘Not Nineteen Forever’. But there are certain things about them that don’t rock me cot…

They’ve never topped St. Jude

Of course this is all down to opinion, but it seems Courteeners have fallen into the common category with Indie bands: “Yeah, it’s decent but not as good as the first album”, applicable to many bands. St. Jude (the band’s debut album released in 2008) is a brilliant album full of high energy tracks with witty lyrics. As Courteeners’ sound has developed they seemed to have lost this wit in their lyrics and a lot of their songs on the past two or three albums have been pretty cringe lyrically. Fray’s gone all soppy on us.

Liam Fray has become a bit of a Mardy Bum

It seems ever since the legendary ‘Who the f*** threw that!?’ fiasco, our Liam has become a bit touchy. Don’t get me wrong, I have no sympathy for whoever threw a lit flare at Michael Campbell, Courteeners’ drummer, but Fray’s reaction was a bit over the top; suddenly he put on his ‘hard’ Manc accent and mouthed off to whoever did it. Since then, the band began to play a gig in London and stormed off stage after two songs after a plastic bottle hit Liam, poor thing. This seems pretty unfair on all those who paid to see them that day. Just a bit mardy, really.

Incroyable is NOT French for ‘Incredible’, Liam

Now I’m no modern foreign languages expert, but even I know that ‘Incroyable’ is in fact French for ‘unbelievable’ not ‘incredible’, as Liam casually states in his song, Modern Love. Just thought I’d mention it, you know.

Band Aesthetic

2008 Look:

Scruffy, but cool(ish). Not too posey. Album art and general aesthetic nice and down to earth.

Current Look:

Liam Fray wore white jeans at Leeds Festival, just take a moment to let that sink in.

Fray also grew one of them beards that looks too groomed to be ‘manly’.

‘Working Class Lads’, ‘Band of the People’

£50 to see them at Old Trafford. Bit much really.

I love Courteeners, I promise…