In defence of “Couples”

The Long Blondes, Couples: Not sure where to begin with this one. I loved the last LB record (as my glowing eMu review attests), but Couples is a pretty radical departure. A collaboration with dance producer Erol Alkan, Couples is a lot more dependent on synthetic rhythms, neon-like synths and twitchy guitars. It’s really not for me, I’m sad to say, but Anna, our UK Editor, is a big fan, so I’m hoping she chimes in to stick up for it.  Joe Keyes, 17 Dots, May 6^th.

It’s been called cold, The Long Blondes’ “Couples.” People have called it shallow and soulless and lacking in talent. I like to think if the album were a person it would face the critics, blow cigarette smoke into their faces, turn on a high high heel and leave. It would probably go home and cry too, but the exit would be perfect.

I can see how “Couples” could seem chilly and superficial on first listen. Erol Alkan has given the band a latex sheen. The frenetic Elastica-glam of their debut ‘Someone To Drive You Home’ breaks through occasionally, particularly on ‘Here Comes The Serious Bit’ and ‘I’m Going To Hell.’ But for the most part the sound is slinky disco with a touch of art school, with singer Kate Jackson pushing her voice into new areas (and on ‘Guilt’ new octaves.) It sounds flash – a trashy attempt at sophistication. For me that works.

Yet “Couples” is a sadder album than ‘Someone To Drive You Home’ – it keeps the high-drama-in-the-suburbs feel of the debut, but lacks the certainty of extreme youth. ‘Someone To Drive You Home’ was full of sexual intrigue, but the band seemed sure there would always be more. “Couples” sees them on shakier ground, still young-ish, but no longer babyfaced hipsters. Atmospherically, and occasionally sonically with it’s strung-out disco, “Couples” feels a good deal like Pulp’s ‘His ‘n’ Hers,’ swapping acrylic afternoons for neon nights.

The piano-led ‘Nostalgia’ in particular calls to mind Julie Burchill’s words on the spirit of St Etienne: “sorrow, often so sumptuous that it feels like pleasure; the lonely splendour of the first model home in Milton Keynes; the sheer, heart-stopping unimpeachable joy of waking up in the morning and still being English.”

The Long Blondes do posses a peculiar kind of English indie vibe; one that’s as much about Mike Leigh and John Osborne as St Etienne and The Smiths; one that revels in the aching mixed feelings of, yes, nostalgia, but also in cataloguing the mundane, the domestic glamour of homeware and grandmotherly phrases such as ‘too clever by half.’

I love The Long Blondes because they’re such an inclusive band; they want you to join them in their carefully assembled fantasy. The glacial Moroder-esque ‘Century’ is made for dressing up and pretending to be in a decadent nightclub on mainland Europe whilst stuck in a provincial disco. ‘Round The Hairpin’ is a bleached out 60s film of a song, slow and mesmeric, inviting you to step through the screen.

In eMusic’s review Chris Roberts calls the Blondes “the glassy gurus of a new blank generation.” Musically “Couples” is indeed about double-glazed retro-futurism, but listen harder, look beyond the make-up and there’s a heart beating still.