Words by Jordan Scott. 

Liam Fray took to Twitter to announce Courteener’s new release ‘St. Jude: Rewired’ which will celebrate the bands debut album which has become one of the most important of its genre.

Following the conclusion of the bands tour of their fifth album ‘Mapping The Rendezvous’ last year, frontman and lyricist Liam Fray embarked on a sold out solo tour in October, and breathed new life into some Courteeners B sides that, according to him “Never got a run out” on the bands previous outings. Although Fray stressed that this was not the end of the band, it still left fans anxious that they might lay dormant for the foreseeable future.

However, the announcement of the re-worked album has left the bands fans elated, as the unplugged ‘St. Jude’ will undoubtedly be everything we want it to be, with Fray describing it as something “Really special”. The announcement was accompanied by two live dates for 2018, a Teenage Cancer Trust gig on Friday 23rd March & Manchester Arena on Saturday 7th of April.

‘St. Jude’ was released on the 7th of April 2008, and it was full of singles that would become classics which to this day are a huge part of their live shows. The record peaked at No.4 on the UK albums chart and included ‘Bide Your Time’ ‘Fallowfield Hillbilly’ ‘Cavorting’ and ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ which are just some of the special moments on the 12 track, un-skippable indie classic that began their journey from small venues around the country to mammoth events such as their 2015 Heaton Park gig and last summer’s Old Trafford.

It’s no fluke that the album has stood the test of time and deserves a celebration on its 10th birthday, when many albums of that era are viewed with varying degrees of obsolescence today. The sincerity of Fray’s lyrics, married with moments of humour and honesty make for an album that’s still being stuck on repeat by fans a decade on, when some music publications at the time claimed they’d be forgotten within a year.

The new album will feature string sections, acoustic guitars and an all-round rework of the songs, something the band have a talent of doing. In the past few years they have acoustically reworked tracks such as ‘Modern Love’ & ‘Small Bones’, along with ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ which has appeared in several acoustic forms.

Courteeners have become arguably one of the biggest underground bands in the world, being fuelled by a devoted fan base that hang on every lyric and note of their albums and gather to sell out their tours within minutes. They stand strong after 10 years, when many bands of their era seemed to acquiesce the fact that radio began to ignore guitar music, and subsequently faded away. The band have released four albums since then that have progressed their sound and propelled them forward, leading them to bigger venues and a growing fan base despite being largely ignored by the mainstream media.

In April the band will toast to ten years of the incredible ‘St. Jude’, and as always, the fans will be right there with them.

‘St.Jude: Rewired’ will be released on 06/04/18.

Article written by Jordan Scott, you can follow Jordan on twitter here.