Courtesy Car aren’t interested in being pinned down- by genre, identity, or expectation. On their latest track ‘Luxury Apartments’, the shadowy UK alt-rock outfit leans into ambiguity, crafting a sound that sits somewhere between stark realism and existential poetry.
Where many bands come out swinging with big choruses and clear-cut hooks, ‘Courtesy Car’ take a more introspective route. There’s a steady restraint in ‘Luxury Apartments’, built from minimalist guitar lines and lyrics that feel more like observations than declarations. But don’t mistake subtlety for softness- this track hits where it hurts, in that quiet, unspoken space between what’s changing outside and what’s unravelling within.
Rather than tackling gentrification with the usual political lens, ‘Luxury Apartments’ turns the mirror inward. The song sits in the eerie sameness of modern cityscapes, asking whether the alienation we feel is born from urban sprawl or something more internal- a kind of emotional erosion. “Is it the city that’s different, or have we changed?” the track seems to ask, without ever spelling it out.
The band’s namesake serves as an apt metaphor for their entire aesthetic: temporary, borrowed, and difficult to fully possess. There’s a transitory quality to both their sound and their message- echoing the numbing feeling as one drifts through streets that used to feel like home.
‘Luxury Apartments’ glows like a fading billboard- enigmatic, disquieting, and strangely comforting. A compelling addition to the slowly unravelling story of one of alt-rock’s most elusive new voices.