The Courteeners - 'St Jude' (Polydor) Released 07/04/08

Public opinion seems to be divided when it comes to The Courteeners; on one hand they’ve been dismissed as just another bunch of gobby guitar wielding northerners, on the other, they’re touted as Manchester’s next big thing, and bizarrely enough have been mentioned in the same breath as The Stone Roses, Morrissey and Oasis. Musical geniuses they are not, but there’s nothing wrong with being gobby guitar wielding northerners either and the release of their debut album ‘St Jude’ see’s them perched somewhere between the two opposing camps.

St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, but whether or not this is pre-meditated answer or excuse to erstwhile dissenters of the band remains to be seen as does the ‘Fallowfield Hillbilly’ lyric “Does the limited edition seven inch quench your thirst for an album that will probably let you down?”. What is clear is that the album holds some merit and has got some belting tracks to its name.

‘St Jude’ announces itself with ‘Aftershow’ a deceptively solemn start which soon slips into stabbing guitars before giving way to one of the albums standout tracks, their debut single ‘Cavorting’. It’s highly energetic, immensely radio friendly and mixes observational fiction with a well formed taste of Liam Fray’s aversion for popular celebrity culture, a recurring theme of the album. Fray’s immersion in decades of localised musical influence combined with Stephen Street’s production values have ensured that ‘St Jude’ is an extremely commercially viable debut and one that resonates with the warm recycled familiarity of so many bands that have gone before, illustrated through tracks such as ‘Bide Your Time’, ‘What Took You So Long’, ‘Please Don’t’, ‘If It Wasn’t For Me’ and ‘No You Didn’t, No You Don’t’. The Courteeners might not be purveyors of originality, in fact ‘St Jude’ is undeniably formulaic, but depending on your point of view, if it aint broke, why fix it?

That said and done, despite the albums lyrical tabloid honesty and everything being exactly where you expect it to be, the short, sharp bursts of anthemic anger illustrates an album made for short lived enjoyment as opposed to repeated longevity. Fray’s northern drawl is undoubtedly appealing, but so is so many of his Mancunian contemporaries and it’s by no means an exclusive sound, as proved by his Gallagher esque whining on the Oasis B-Side sounding ‘How Come’. His vocal does however come into its own on the full blooded ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ which is undoubtedly the highlight of the album.

Arrogance or observational dry wit, unoriginal half-heartedness or reassuring repackaged familiarity, love them or hate them; The Courteeners simple determined attack is best enjoyed in small doses.