Heaven help Kate Jackson. Less than two years ago, it looked as if she and her Long Blondes were priming themselves for the ‘new Pulp’ designation with their stellar full-length debut, Someone to Drive You Home. Everyone knows that Jarvis is off doing his whole Trust-era Elvis Costello minstrel show routine under his own name, so it’s no surprise that Someone to Drive You Home’s spiky guitars, Mod posturing, and (lest we forget) Jackson’s lyrical drops of advice delivered in black-and-white drama served as Gilead’s balm for anyone left lingering by Pulp’s stately swan song, We Love Life. So it makes perfect sense that for their follow-up, the Blondes have decided to... go disco?
That last sentence above isn’t as loaded with sarcasm as it reads; anyone who followed the band’s pre-Rough Trade days, replete with awesome 7-inches on What’s Yr Rupture?, would know that early versions of “Giddy Stratospheres” and “Autonomy Boy” were more steam and sequins than coffee and TV. Thus, the thumping, oscillating dance sounds that litter The Long Blondes’ sophomore effort, Couples, aren’t very surprising (nor is the choice of wizard Erol Alkan as producer). The shock here is how bloodless the entire affair is.
One would suspect Alkan would be capable of taking the Blondes’ sound and turning something seriously singeing out of it, given the man’s recent remix work. Instead, everything falls sort of flat on Couples, as the synth lines in “Century” and dampened smoke-and-mirrors erotica of “Too Clever by Half” add deadweight (think ‘five ton horse’ deadweight) that nobody really wanted.
Of course, a producer is only as good as the material they are working with, and Couples is, in the end, singularly the Blondes’ failing. Although there are a handful of tracks that capture the magic present on Someone to Drive You Home -- the Tropicalia-infused “The Couples” and withering torch song “Nostalgia”, for example -- when Alkan’s hand seems invisible, as on the dull retreads “Erin O’ Connor” and “I Liked the Boys,” the results are diminishing.
In the end, this record is probably their His and Hers; that, of course, would be fine if they didn’t already release their Different Class. Let’s face it, though; Couples proves that Kate is no Jarvis, and, more importantly, The Long Blondes are no Pulp.
More about: The Long Blondes
