Bright and Playful…Nonchalant and Inoffensive – Courteeners ‘Pink Cactus Café’ Review

Words: Gracie Erskine

Four years post their COVID baby ‘More Again Forever’, Courteeners come cruising back onto the scene with their retro-futurist Sunday afternoon spin ‘Pink Cactus Café’. In a toil to overt the eyes of anyone still ‘Not Nineteen Forever’-ing, the Manchester 5 piece allow lead singer and songwriter Liam Fray to chew on his thoughts on this album, stirring his morning coffee, humming away to his own endeavours.  All this with the extension of the party with Aussie operatives DMA’s, Glaswegian soul searcher Brooke Combe and indie dreamer ‘Pixey’, as well as the certified inclusion of touring musicians Elina Lin and Joe Cross. 

Fray and Combe collude on opening track, ‘Sweet Surrender’ and despite the scratch in the back of your head that may allude you to think, initially, it is a previous Centre Parcs advert, it does in fact invite some interesting moments. Gratuity forms in the rugged acoustics, racing leads and at the very least, a door to Fray switching the stylistic gears.  

Lead single ‘Solitude of the Night Bus’ is the candescent nostalgic warmth, a twin flame to fan favourite ‘The 17^th’, freshly familiar and a resurrection of the witty Mancunian charm fans are used to. This is replicated in the cultural acuity of ‘First Name Terms’, “lie back and think of England, but when does England ever think of you” Fray questions as he prods and pokes at the state of the country over a quintessential snappy beat, with Pixey’s smooth harmonies glazing themselves over the track. 

Despite ‘Where Are We Now?’ ‘Lulu’ and ‘Love You Any Less’ dispersing themselves throughout the track list, they all tend to blur into a magnolia bowl of forgettable. Seeming to be cliché ridden and an introductory guide to rhyming couplets, ‘Lulu’ takes the crown with “Trying to forget you, even after all we’ve been through”. The tracks feel impersonable against some of Fray’s pen-on-fire moments on the album. Most blatant is the DMA’s cosplay on their featured track, which feels like Fray nipped out to the shops in the writing process, came back and whacked it on the album. 

‘Pink Cactus Café’ is a refreshing insight into the next wave of the teeners; it’s bright and playful but it’s also nonchalant and inoffensive. The accumulating pile of GCSE English metaphors against presumptuous structure makes the shift in gear forwards feeling like we’ve somehow ended up in reverse. If you fancy taking a seat at the ‘Pink Cactus Café’ listen below…