9. Please Don’t // St Jude (2008)
‘Please Don’t’ perfectly showcases the brutal realism which makes the Courteeners’ music so relatable. Having expressed his belief that typical boy/girl love songs are empty and hollow in an interview, it’s perhaps unsurprising that there’s such an abundance of cynicism in Fray’s lyrics.
This track is somewhat bitter in tone, with a shouty aspect to the vocal – particularly with the use of the expletives in “it’s got fuck all to do with me” – but this makes ‘Please Don’t’ arguably one of the most popular songs from the Courteeners’ live sets, thanks to the staccato-esque delivery of the chorus “please don’t / pretend / that we’ll / stay friends”. A middle fingered salute from anyone who has ever been dumped to those doing the dumping, what’s not to love?