Falcon

It’s been a long wait for The Courteeners’ devoted fans since the band’s debut album St. Jude, which entered the charts at an impressive number 4 in April 2008 but, despite containing a couple of danceable indie hits, was a fairly plain and dreary offering. Falcon represents a significant improvement and advancement. As is often the case with second albums, it is softer, more mature, musically more creative and lyrically more thoughtful. With Oasis gone and British lad-rock dying out and being replaced by electro-indie, The Courteeners have been hailed as the saviours and with Falcon they seem to be making a statement. Maybe a band from Manchester with an arrogant lead-singer called Liam who occasionally plays the tambourine can still rule British rock’n’roll.

Despite their surface similarities to Oasis, musical comparisons to fellow Manc bands The Smiths (Morrisey himself is a fan) and Elbow are far more valid in Falcon. The songs have the egocentric, gushy emotion of The Smiths and the anthemic balladry of the latter, particularly in the beautiful ‘Take Over The World’ and ‘Last Of The Ladies’. Liam Fray’s bravado that he presents both on stage and screen are replaced with honest sensitivity in his songwriting. In the appropriately-named first song ‘The Opener’, he announces that “I’ve been away, I’ve been working but now I’m back I need to know if you’re still there”, a clear message to his beloved Manchester and the band’s fans. At times, it does get a bit too soppy, particularly in ‘Lullaby’, and there’s less of the fast, energetic Britpop present in songs like ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ on the first album.

Overall, however, the lyrics are witty, modest (“I’m only a paperboy from the northwest but I scrub up well in my Sunday best”) and endearing, whilst Ed Buller’s production, Adam Payne’s piano and the regular “woah-a-woahs” and “ooh-oohs” ensure maximum sing-along ability. ‘Cross My Heart & Hope To Fly’, a repetitive tune which the band gave away for free download in December, and ‘You Overdid It Doll’, a funky, Reverend and The Makers-like song and the first single to be released from the album, will already be stuck in the heads of Courteeners’ fans. If St. Jude hinted at the band’s talent, Falcon fulfils it.