Review | Album review: the Courteeners keep ploughing their barren Britpop furrow

The Courteeners
Mapping the Rendezvous
Ignition

Gobby and cocksure, the Courteeners’ frontman, Liam Fray, has always been a poor man’s Liam Gallagher. As leader of “the biggest underground band in the world”, Fray has never been afraid to put people down to big up his own, already inflated ego. It’s the kind of rock-star swagger that grabs headlines and divides music lovers. It has also helped sustain a decade-long career built on the back of a few half-decent stadium anthems. Will the British indie rockers’ fifth album, Mapping the Rendezvous, finally silence the doubters? The record is based on the theme of “not thinking too much about the consequences”, but the opening track, the post-punk-pop Lucifer’s Dreams, and the 1990s-style indie rocker Kitchen are firmly in the middle ground the Mancunian quartet tend to plough. The acoustic De La Salle wants to be The Smiths but is instead the kind of B-side Oasis could knock out during a brotherly scrap, and, like much of the album, will do nothing to change anyone’s opinion.