The Long Blondes: sitting and smiling
On the 7th April, The Long Blondes are to release their eagerly anticipated second album, "Couples". SUPERSWEET’s Steve Gislam caught up with the band, who gave us a track by track low down, just to wet all your appetites.
1) CENTURY
Like a post-millennial Autoamerican-era Blondie (but without the rapping). Steeped in Erol Alkan’s production wizardry and wide-ranging in theme, "
Couples" lead single is a defiant and marked change from the group’s earlier work.
Kate Jackson (vocals): I wrote the lyrics for ‘Century’. It’s quite an unusual track for us because the music came first. We had some idea of a structure but it wasn’t complete. I thought the way it was written on these vintage £10 Yamaha keyboards reminded me of watching history programmes at school on things like the Cold War, the space race or the nuclear arms race. So, I wanted to write an ode from people living in the 21st century to people living in the 20th century. And it’s the first time we’ve really talked, lyrically, about history and a little bit of politics. It was more meant to be like a lyrical collage, to give people ideas, rather than a narrative.
2) GUILT
Harking back lyrically to their earlier work and laden with disco riffs and regrets, ‘Guilt’ is an ode to a relationship that quite possibly should not be.
Emma Chapman (guitar, keyboard, vocals): ’Guilt’ is probably opposite to ‘Century’, in that it was the most complete song when we first went into the studio. It’s very narrative and probably one of the ones most like our earlier stuff, I think.
3) THE COUPLES
Loneliness in a pop song format. If you’ve ever sat grumpy and alone in a public place, surrounded by nausea inducing, seemingly-happy lovebirds, then you’re not alone, and ‘The Couples’ is testament to that.
Dorian Cox (guitar, keyboard): That was the first one we recorded and last one we wrote before going in.
Reenie Hollis (bass, vocals): And it was nice to be able to plunder the album title from that. Though we did debate whether or not it was okay to have the album title the same as a song title but the subtle loss of the ‘the’ and the adding of the speech marks covered that.
4) I LIKED THE BOYS
A jumble of guitar licks and drum beats, ‘I Liked The Boys’ harks back to the band’s classic themes of growing up and wondering exactly where all that time went.
Screech Louder (drums): This was a song that was completely different to how it sounds now. We were struggling with it for ages. We had this chord progression and we just couldn’t get it to work so we decided we’d do something really straight forward, almost harking back to things like ‘Separated By Motorways’. It’s become one of my favourites on the album and to play live.
5) HERE COMES THE SERIOUS BIT
Pedalled guitar riffs, handclaps and a shoutalong chorus like Elastica meeting The Supremes, ‘Here Comes The Serious Bit’ is as instantly catchy as the Bubonic plague. Extra kudos for the Marquis de Sade reference.
Dorian: The original idea of that kind of got lost. But I really like songs, it doesn’t happen any more, but songs based on dance crazes. And if we had a dance craze it’d be called ‘The Serious Bit’. We’re not really, y’know, a jumping around band, we’re quite demure, so if we had a dance craze we thought it’d be quite serious.
6) ROUND THE HAIRPIN
Displaying a darker and more experimental side to the group than previously seen, ‘Round The Hairpin’ is a post-rock tinged, semi-dirge with hints of Stereolab, Neu! and anything Brian Eno touched in the early-80s. Without question, the sound of a band prodding around with their own identity.
Screech: That was written entirely in studio. We just went in and wrote it in a day. The drums were so much fun to do. I did three drum sets one in the shower (laughs), A lot of our songs are based around melody but the basis of this song is droning noise and the rhythm of it. I like how it’s a song, which is dark with no real verse or chorus structure. I think the way it’s positioned on the album gives it a real impact.
7) TOO CLEVER BY HALF
The minimalist instrumentation and intimate, breathy vocal style from Kate, moe the band into more new musical territory. Both sexy and edgy at the same time, ‘Too Clever By Half’ is sort of like being chastised by a stripper.
Kate: This was another one that completely changed when we went to the studio. We had a demo of it that we did when we were practicing in Sheffield. It was really guitar led and it pretty much sounded like something that could’ve been on the first album. Then Erol said we could push this forward in a different direction and make it into a disco song. So we did the drum loop and I sang that a cappella vocal on top, which I’m really pleased with. Then we just built up all the instruments around those two elements, which again is a really strange way for us to write the songs because normally the guitar part and melody would’ve come first but we did it the other way around.
8) ERIN O'CONNOR
Love is a complex thing, and The Long Blondes have always understood the way that people can cling on to its last remnants when the truth of its demise is plain for all to see. ‘Erin’ is lyrically bleak tale of a woman telling her lover to “close your eyes and think of Erin O’Connor”. All the signs are there that it’s not going to last.
Reenie: Lyrically that was Dorian’s ode to, well, Erin O’Connor. Musically, I sort of remember writing that bass line, but I don’t really remember anything about it except it’s quite simple. The whole song is quite clean and direct and was quite easy to record.
Screech: The slowing down wasn’t originally part of the song. It was easy to record but it changed quite a lot when we were doing it. We kept thinking ‘maybe we should try this’. It works really well now because it builds up the tension before going back into it.
Reenie: I’m a bit fearful of playing that one live because its got two bits where I have to start and stop. I really psyched myself out yesterday thinking “you’re going to fuck it up, you’re going to fuck it up” and I did! Other than that, I like that song.
9) NOSTALGIA
A piano led and rather beautiful ode to the desire to be anywhere else but where you are now. The idea of moving to the future is something that perhaps we can all relate to, but few bands have managed to capture the emotions surrounding this desire as well as The Long Blondes have here.
Dorian: We’ve never done a ballad before. It’s quite a slow tempo song but still sounds sort of otherworldly. Again it’s almost self-depreciating. With the first album we got a lot of people saying we were referring to the past and that we’re quite a nostalgic band. So we just wrote song called ‘Nostalgia’. The lyrics are talking about moving to future, and while it’s true it’s obviously about relationships, as well it’s us saying as a band that we like to look at what’s gone on in the past but we’re also relevant today.”
10) I'M GOING TO HELL
Couples comes to a grand finish, complete with honking keyboards and fuzzy guitars, which dance around each other at an ever quickening pace, until finally colliding in a crescendo and at last relinquishing their hold on the listener. A wonderfully awkward way to end the album.
Emma: Ooh I like playing this one. I like heavy guitar, you see.
Dorian: I think it’s got a nice sort of Velvet Underground/ Modern Lovers kind of chugging to it.
Emma: Yeah, I like a good old chug.
Words: Steve Gislam
Photography: Pavla Kopecna