The Long Blondes – Couples
The Long Blondes’ last album wasn’t bad, I thought. There were some excellent, catchy indie-pop songs with plenty of bounce and a bit of wit and sparkle to elevate them above the crowd, but all in all it was a decent album rather than a really good one.
This is one step down from that. There are a few decent songs – The Couples, Guilt, Century – but the album tails off horribly after that and limps across the finish line with barely enough life left in it to raise a whistle.
They’ve gone a bit electro-disco, although they’ve always sounded a little like Blondie, and the sound isn’t too bad. The problem is the tunes. Their previous output was straight from a pretty well-established template, but the catchy melodies they were able to produce made the difference. In the case of Couples, the template may have changed, but it is template-rock nonetheless, and the tunes don’t cut the mustard. This album does not make me feel like dancing or even tapping my feet, and for something so formulaic that is the one thing it must do.
The Long Blondes – The Couples
The Long Blondes – Guilt
FFS – I just said I thought they were shit. I’m leaving this up because you are trying to publicise a decent-looking musical enterprise of your own, but at least take a moment to read the post before leaving a spam comment.
I was a huge fan of The Long Blondes first few singles and unreleased demos. The first album, however, lost much of the scappy energy of the earlier recordings. At the time, I chalked it up to the celebrity producer they brought in (the bassist from Pulp).
But this latest record is a total buzzkill. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. What were they thinking? This is so bad it’s actually making me reconsider their older stuff.
I LOVED the first album as the same things you said negatively about, they did excellent and was raving about the Long Blondes. I must agree with you on the album though despite liking different tracks. It’s a very weak effort which why I bashed Couples myself.