Beach Sloth

Courtship – Hope 6.8

               Courtship’s ‘Hope’ is pure positivity. Feel it build up into so many wonderful explosions. Listening to this is so giddy. It is like Courtship can barely control its enthusiasm. Simply hearing its lower-key songs reminds me of Cut Copy’s similar style, of trying to hold itself together before exploding into colorful sound. While Courtship takes a different approach from Cut Copy, it isn’t too far off. Clear electro influences are all over the album. 

                The opener begins the album quietly. ‘My View’ takes a more direct approach, indulging in trance-like flourishes, wordless vocals, and a charming twee melody. By far though the standout is the infinitely catchy ‘The People Around You’. Love this song. How Courtship lets it almost fade away into nothing is a bit fun. I am reminded of the whole ‘pop trance’ thing that’s making a comeback with things like ‘Games’ and other Daniel Lopatin-related material. Guess at some point the innocence of early 90s dance music needed to make a comeback. Courtship clearly understands that as they embrace the sound quite hard. Even on the slower tracks ‘[Imageless]’ keep up with this tender take on the sound of early WARP, particularly of Boards of Canada’s obsession with filtered field recordings. In fact this Boards of Canada imagery comes up on ‘My Friends’ which manages to come out of the feeling of pity and sadness into something really hopeful. 

‘Hope’ is full of some very intricately designed dance songs. It is even more than that though. Courtship understands the importance of having a well-balanced sound. For all of its influences it manages to remain positive throughout the whole album.