Product Description

'Couples' is the second album from Sheffield-based five piece The Long Blondes. After enlisting DJ/producer du jour Erol Alkan, the band present an exciting collection of tracks, marking a progression from their debut 'Someone To Drive YouHome'. Mixing bold musical ideas from disco and synth pop to krautrock rhythms and sophisticated indie, the band keep their wry and pop culture referencing ideas intact. Overall it's an ambitious record and a testament to their talent and wit. The single 'Century' is included.

Track Listing

1. Century
2. Guilt
3. The Couples
4. I Liked The Boys
5. Here Comes The Serious Bit
6. Round The Hairpin
7. Too Clever By Half
8. Erin O'Connor
9. Nostalgia
10. I'm Going To Hell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20332 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Long Blondes have had a makeover. Which might seem par for the course considering their fiery, acclaimed debut album Someone to Drive You Home saw their sense of retro chic kept at least equivalent to their Sheffield Blondie shtick. But they emerge from the inter-album dry-ice expanse devoid of many of those rough edges that defined and made them so alluring in the first instance--more Jackie Onassis than Oxfam--friends and family stand agog at the transformation. They're certainly no less sassy, au contraire, but there is a new found seriousness all over Couples. Last time, beneath their second-generation Britpop wrapping and Elastica/Pulp impulses, snuck a sense of synthesised control evoking hometown forbearers Heaven 17. This time around that impression is flipped. The clean lines and neon minimalism of "Century" and "Round the Hairpin" are more Ladytron than typical Long Blondes and "Too Clever By Half", essentially a husky falsetto prevented from floating off into the ether by a slow, sultry bass-line, is so slick it could be mistaken for recent ultra-stylised Kylie. The brilliant, full-throttle Roxy Music glam rattling of "I'm Going to Hell" is a reasonable meeting-point between the two albums, but their tight command of the musical onslaught is now quite arresting. This new-found sophistication, coupled with Erol Alkan's tremendously vibrant production, ensures that Couples probably does come out as twice the album to its predecessor. --James Berry

Customer Reviews

CREAMY JALFREZI
Very disappointing second album. Take your favorite chiken jalfrezi, stir in an insipid creamy cheese sauce then shrink pack it in a polystyrene tray for supermarket shelves. Even Kate Jacksons sexiness sounds forced now. I really hope the new songs sound better live this summer.

Couples
Teamed with DJ Erol Alkan, The Long Blondes are back with their troublesome second album, `Couples'.

In difficult, second album style, the Blondes have chosen to begin by changing their sound with some self-indulgent electro. Sure it still has the Kate Bush influences, but they're the bad, bland parts. The instrumental sounds like the demo on a cheap Casio keyboard. The problem is, it's meant to sound like that which just makes it even more grating. It's called `Century' which is fitting, as the song is so boring it seems like it lasts that long. To make matters worse, it is their first single. Where has the punk gone? Where has the half-decent taste in music gone? Erol Alkan, you've got a lot to answer for.

"Guilt" (has nothing to do with it) is the title of track two and probably had something to do with chucking that crap Casio keyboard out and reverting back to a slightly more familiar sound. Familiar for a Girls Aloud single that is.

Predictably, the production is far sharper than the debut album. I think most people would rather listen to the grit of `Lust in the Movies' any day though. Even the most anthemic of songs are polished up like a bimbo's nails. How Kate Jackson manages to make a chant sound glam I just don't know (`Here Comes the Serious Bit'). She could sing Ave Maria and still somehow make it sound sexy.

As well as a DJ producer it seems like they've nicked Pulp's keyboardist in certain aspects. Well they certainly ain't having Jarvis. "Round the Hairpin" could be a B-side on a Pulp single, except it is more soft porn than Hardcore.

It comes across as though this band are trying to emulate their idols, rather than doing what they're good at- being themselves. "Erin O'Connor" is another indie disco number which will no doubt be a single but it is everything that Blondie has already done before (A nice grimey guitar though). Then there's "Too Clever By Half", an understated falsetto number that should have been left to a hidden track, and "Nostalgia" is only worth listening to because it uses the word `breakfast'- an under-used meal in love songs.

However we do end this disappointing album with a lovely lyric "I'm going to hell so I may as well make it worth my while". But come to think of it, "Lovely" shouldn't really be an adjective for a song about going to hell though should it? It sounds more like a little girl cheekily admitting she's been throwing out the fruit her mummy puts in her lunchbox and eating penny chews instead. It's hardly hell-raising and the 50s rock `n' roll style piano doesn't exactly help the situation.

The Long Blondes tried to do something a little different with "Couples" but got cautious after only the first track. They've accessorised their sound rather than having a complete makeover. Minus the dire opening, any Long Blondes fan should probably at least download this album, but the rest of us would do better to steer clear.

Disappointing
Someone To Drive You Home was my album of 2006, quite comfortably as it turned out. From start to finish it was a modern masterpiece. Notwithstanding the lack of an actual hit, it was an album packed full of singles, yet held together as it's own entity. And I'd think that even if Kate Jackson wasn't sex-on-legs.

Three tracks in, the follow up Couples seems to be heading for a similarly winning run. Century proves that adding synths to the mix (replacing the jangly guitars that were their trademark) was a good idea. Jackson has rarely sounded better and the insistent tune is soon lodged in your brain.

Guilt could have drowned in it's Disco beat, but lyrically it's classic Long Blondes and is one of those songs that gets better with every listen. The Couples is perhaps the song on the album that most could have fitted in on STDYH and as well as having a killer tune once again brings the biting wit of the Blondes to the fore.

So far so good then? Sadly it's pretty much a downhill ride from here, or at least you've got as good as your going to get in the first three tracks.

I Liked The Boys and Here Comes The Serious Bit basically forget to pack a tune in alongside the other ingredients, and Nostalgia may well achieve it's probable aim of reminding you of the early 80's but that doesn't stop it being a terrible song. Things reach a possible nadir with Too Clever By Half. I still can't make my mind up if it's so bad it's good, or whether it's just plain awful. I'm half tempted to think it's someone's bad idea of a joke.

At least Round The Hairpin and Erin O'Connor mean that the last two thirds of the album isn't a complete wash out but, especially after the blinding opening, it's all too much of a disappointment.

There are signs that they still have more to offer, and at the least they should be commended for resisting the temptation to record another STDYH and waiting for the money to roll in. Still that doesn't change the fact that, for this listener at least, Couples is very much a let-down.