Album review: The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes
Couples

Label: Rough Trade
Website: www.thelongblondes.co.uk

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Long Blondes set the bar high with their triumphant 2006 debut, Someone To Drive You Home. An infectious pop gem, full of kitchen-sink drama, urban decay and bingo-hall glamour, it set The Long Blondes up as the new Pulp; part disco glitz, part ladies-night-at-the-greyhound-track.

Their new record, Couples, sees the band trying to extend and broaden their musical horizons, with longer, darker tracks like I’m Going To Hell, Too Clever By Half and Nostalgia, alongside trademark indie-disco pop stormers like The Couples and Here Comes The Serious Bit.

Lead singer Kate Jackson has certainly improved her range, and the rest of the band have all clearly improved as musicians. However, this record sees them too interested in showing off their new skills – the razor-sharp pop nous given way to self-conscious capability.

Production by Erol Alkan is too smooth, too Blondie-redux . The Long Bondes’ charm was that they looked like the cool gang at school, at once accessible (“Hey guys, let’s start a band!”) and aspirational (who doesn’t want to be in an arty band and hang out with good-looking hipsters)?

In raising their musical game, The Long Blondes have dampened the youthful, almost instinctual ear for pop that made them so exciting and fun.

Granted, Couples has its share of great tracks but it also has its fair share of mediocre disco noodling. Plus, the album’s irritating inclusion of snippets of movie dialogue gives it a really amateurish, Sixth Form feel.