Long Blondes: Couples (Rough Trade)

Tuesday February 19, 2008

After bursting onto our radar with the dizzying disco punk of Giddy Stratospheres and a wave of NME recommendations, Long Blondes appeared to lose momentum somewhat with debut album Someone To Drive You Home, which retreated from the spacey innovation of their break-out single into some rather leaden – if clever – indie bedsit sounds.

Hail then to producer/DJ/man about town Erol Alkan who, in producing the band’s second album has give them back a little of that disco/experimental oomph. That’s not to play down the role of the band, who have continued to craft arch observational songs, reminiscent of hometown heroes Pulp, but in Alkan’s hands their sound takes on a far more rainbow hue.

What is more, Couples pulls off the neat trick of sounding both very much of the moment (4/4 drums, scratchy guitars and very English lyrics) and strangely timeless – at times you could almost be listening to X Ray Spex or Blondie, although not quite that good.

Couples is perfect of course: it trails off towards the end, despite a short running time, and many listeners will find Kate Jackson’s love-it-or-hate-it voice a real turn off. But at its best (first single century Century, for example), the album resolutely nails the Long Blonde’s early appeal, creating what could challenge for the first great English indie album of 2008.