Album Review: The Courteeners - Anna

The rather dull title for The Courteeners' third album could only possibly be exciting for two groups of people: those called Anna, or those in love with someone called Anna. It doesn't help matters that some of the tracks (see Are You In Love With A Notion? and Save Rosemary In Time), are almost on par in terms of lameness with Kirk Van Houten's Can I Borrow A Feeling. Thankfully, though, these English boys are far better at writing and playing songs than they are at naming them.

There are a couple of things that hit you when listening to this album, the first being that they appear to have finally stopped trying to capture their youth. There are no annoying anthemic tunes that are trying their best to let us all know how strong their camaraderie with 'the kids' is. This album should be the one to win back those who wrote off the band's previous work. The second and far more favourable thing is just how full-bodied the sound is throughout the record. From the heavy, driving guitars on Money to the pounding piano on The Sharks Are Circling, and then onto the string section-soaked oh-so-serious Marquee, your ears are treated to song after song of lush tones. A minimalistic sound is clearly not something they strive for.

Of course, all this doesn't add up to much if the songs themselves aren't much good. Thankfully, there's only one slightly dodgy (and scarily reminiscent, at certain times throughout the song, of an Air Supply ballad) tune: Marquee. Still, The Courteeners have already proven they can do ballad-esque well, with the beautiful Van Der Graaff, so it's no big deal.