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Product Description
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
Review
When I told a colleague that I was reviewing ''Couples'', the follow-up to debut, Someone To Drive You Home, he looked perplexed and asked 'What is the point of the Long Blondes?'. With his bemusement in mind, I read the album blurb with a close eye, searching for an answer to his question. They're 'the illicit thoughts that let a chink of excitement into the ennui of suburban life' (?). Apparently they're also 'the SHOCK of the NEW': So they even transcend upper and lower case letters! Yes, I know record labels tend to submerge their new releases in a murky swamp of hype, but this is too much.
After listening to ''Couples'' (the quotation marks are significant, so the press release informs you) I can safely report back to my colleague that the point of the Long Blondes is to make everyone realise how amazing Blondie were in their prime.
Erol Alkan, uber producer du jour, steps into the frame for this album but even his kudos can't save this. Century, the album opener and first single, sounds like a poor man's Atomic. All five and a half minutes of it. Guilt is slightly more interesting, though Kate Jackson's voice struggles with the high notes. Only by the fifth track, Here Comes the Serious Bit, does the album start to become memorable. Its repetitive, shouty chorus will get shoulders shimmying on a dancefloor.
There's been a fair bit of talk about Round The Hairpin, which is a pretty, swirly, looping tune. Not the easiest listen, but definitely the most interesting while Too Clever By Half is the highlight of an otherwise bleak album. Jackson's vocals attain a certain sexiness, and the song jogs along nicely.
There are, perhaps, some hidden depths, but why bother to search when the blurb already tells you, straight-faced, that ''Couples'' is a 'complete musical and cultural artefact'. I rest my case. --Jenny Nelson
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Having heard the pre-release of this album a few times, I'm pretty hooked on it. Stylistically, it is very different from "Someone To Drive You Home", so it is bound to split the opinion of old fans, whilst winning over some new ones (like me).
Where the first album was indie (with very slight punk leanings in places), this is more electro-indie. The guitars are still there, but they're accompanied by a lot of synths, and it's quite a radical change of direction.
There's plenty to dance to (lead single "Century", or the spectacularly silly "Here Comes The Serious Bit"), some more straightforward indie-tinged tracks that will appeal to early fans ("Guilt", "I'm Going To Hell", "The Couples"), and a couple of really different songs like the dark-sounding "Round The Hairpin" or the almost falsetto vocals of "Too Clever by Far".
All in all, I really enjoy this album, it's very catchy and diverse enough to make an interesting listen. Personal highlights are "Guilt" and "Too Clever By Far", and I'd say that the vocalist has improved since the first disc. Some old fans won't like it, but if addressed with an open mind they may surprise themselves.
Where the first album was indie (with very slight punk leanings in places), this is more electro-indie. The guitars are still there, but they're accompanied by a lot of synths, and it's quite a radical change of direction.
There's plenty to dance to (lead single "Century", or the spectacularly silly "Here Comes The Serious Bit"), some more straightforward indie-tinged tracks that will appeal to early fans ("Guilt", "I'm Going To Hell", "The Couples"), and a couple of really different songs like the dark-sounding "Round The Hairpin" or the almost falsetto vocals of "Too Clever by Far".
All in all, I really enjoy this album, it's very catchy and diverse enough to make an interesting listen. Personal highlights are "Guilt" and "Too Clever By Far", and I'd say that the vocalist has improved since the first disc. Some old fans won't like it, but if addressed with an open mind they may surprise themselves.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
So many newspaper reviews have thus far failed to catch the essence of this record which is somewhat understandable given the variation in tracks and the evolution from the Someone To Drive You Home LP.
Whereas the ferocity and tempo of the debut album had built on the earlier released singles of Lust In Movies and Once and Never Again, here is the sound of a band exhaling in the most seductive of manners.
The references to Pulp, Elastica and (no intention to offend) Sleeper bubble to the surface now whereas previously these were far more overt. Here the sounds range in style to include a Sheffield CSS, somehow Kasabianesque intros and Franz Ferdinand style Wogan references. If anything the diversity of songs now mark out The Long Blondes as a group to be taken on their own merits, for their own body of work, rather than as some collective 'new yorkshire' 'second wave of britpop' etc.
Century is a superb opener if a little bit of a bodyswerve as a signpost for the remainder of the record. The sort of noise that possibly only All Seeing I or Moloko could have thrust into a British pop atmosphere and exptect to work successfully into a hit in waiting.
Other standouts inlude Too Clever By Half which deserves its own film built around it to be generally released throughout art galleries everythwere - Nostalgia which sounds like The Good The Bad & The Queen teaming up with Graham Coxon with lyrics by a Jarvis Cocker trapped in 1992 - Here Comes The Serious Bit, a second cousin to Art Bruts Direct Hit but with more of a head down rush to the crescendo.
Much as they were a good band with a good record and excellent singles prior to "Couples", The Long Blondes are now in real danger of becoming a great band with an excellent record and splendid singles. Its as if difficult second albums never existed.
Whereas the ferocity and tempo of the debut album had built on the earlier released singles of Lust In Movies and Once and Never Again, here is the sound of a band exhaling in the most seductive of manners.
The references to Pulp, Elastica and (no intention to offend) Sleeper bubble to the surface now whereas previously these were far more overt. Here the sounds range in style to include a Sheffield CSS, somehow Kasabianesque intros and Franz Ferdinand style Wogan references. If anything the diversity of songs now mark out The Long Blondes as a group to be taken on their own merits, for their own body of work, rather than as some collective 'new yorkshire' 'second wave of britpop' etc.
Century is a superb opener if a little bit of a bodyswerve as a signpost for the remainder of the record. The sort of noise that possibly only All Seeing I or Moloko could have thrust into a British pop atmosphere and exptect to work successfully into a hit in waiting.
Other standouts inlude Too Clever By Half which deserves its own film built around it to be generally released throughout art galleries everythwere - Nostalgia which sounds like The Good The Bad & The Queen teaming up with Graham Coxon with lyrics by a Jarvis Cocker trapped in 1992 - Here Comes The Serious Bit, a second cousin to Art Bruts Direct Hit but with more of a head down rush to the crescendo.
Much as they were a good band with a good record and excellent singles prior to "Couples", The Long Blondes are now in real danger of becoming a great band with an excellent record and splendid singles. Its as if difficult second albums never existed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh dear,
Oh dear, this is a classic case of a 'difficult second album', three or four good songs at most, I mean good when comparing it to the sound of their first album, which I really... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard
Brilliant album if you have the patience to persevere
I thought their first album Someone To Drive You Home was brilliant. I would go as far as saying it was the best album of 2006 by some distance. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2008 by BS on parade
Couples
Teamed with DJ Erol Alkan, The Long Blondes are back with their troublesome second album, `Couples'. Read more
Published on 15 May 2008 by Lara O'Reilly
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. Read more
Published on 12 April 2008 by IWFIcon
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