The Long Blondes - Couples [2008]When a young band makes a great debut album that blows up and makes a pile of cash, you can almost set your watch to the sophomore slump, that shitty second album that never meets expectations. For this reason, when a band’s debut rocks your shit, it’s best to be circumspect in spinning the follow-up. To take just a few British examples from recent years, see The Music, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, The Streets, Art Brut…
It’s hard to say exactly why bands dud out the second time around, but there’s a few theories. Some debut albums take shape through years of songwriting and touring, while the follow-up might be squeezed out in the studio on record company time (see Bloc Party). Some debuts might find their poetry in everyday life, a vein of experience that can’t be mined on a second album that was written between snorts of cocaine from the naked bodies of groupies (see Arctic Monkeys). Sometimes, the group might respond to the pressure of sudden success by making an overwrought concept album (see The Streets). Other times, it might even be the listener’s fault: the debut album was so fresh and exciting that when the follow-up doesn’t shake the earth, the listener chucks a sad. Fickle consumers that we are, this happens to the best of us.
Sheffield’s The Long Blondes made a great debut album in 2006 called Someone to Drive You Home and now we’ve got the follow-up, Couples. Does it suffer from the sophomore slump? Honestly, yes. Couples falls into a number of the traps which beset second albums. It feels rushed, the songwriting and lyricism is diminished, it takes an ill-conceived stylistic left turn, and it even features some appalling cover art. But in spite of all this, it remains a partial success.
The beauty of Someone to Drive You Home was mostly about front-woman Kate Jackson. There was nothing too revolutionary about the band’s blend of 60’s pop, punk and new wave, but the album was an absolute delight because The Long Blondes could pen a rock tune catchier than syphilis to back Jackson’s wonderful, forthright, and at times hilarious lyricism. Maybe it’s just a reflection of the patriarchal nature of rock music, but I’d struggle to name another front-woman who sings so incisively about boys, girls and relationships. It sounds lame, but it’s actually a revelation to hear a woman sing lines like: “Where do you go when you’ve finished work/You should have been home an hour ago/And I’ve got your tea laid out like some kind of fifties housewife”.
The problem with Couples is that The Long Blondes sound like they’re unaware of their strengths. The album half-heartedly tries on a bit of dance-punk for size, with mixed results, on show in opener “Century”. Other songs, notably “Here Comes the Serious Bit”, sound at best like B-sides from the debut. But the worst sin of the album is that Kate Jackson no longer has her trademark vocal and lyrical presence. Sadly lacking are the witty lines that defined the debut, replaced by repetitive angst (“Century”, “Round the Hairpin”), and aural filler (“I Liked the Boys”, “Erin O’Connor”). Cheekiness was much more becoming on Jackson than the faux-darkness of Couples songs like “I’m Going to Hell”.
But not all is slump on Couples. “Guilt” exhibits everything that’s great about The Long Blondes, right down to some snarled lyrics about an unfaithful protagonist and her loathed fling, and is a legitimate dance-punk hit. “Too Clever by Half” is sexy as fuck, Jackson eschewing her standard talk-sing for a sultry, half-whispered croon.
At the end of album closer “I’m Going to Hell”, Jackson asks “Would you forgive me now?”. Sure we do, Kate. Just don’t go to hell before you make another album as good as your first.
It’s hard to say exactly why bands dud out the second time around, but there’s a few theories. Some debut albums take shape through years of songwriting and touring, while the follow-up might be squeezed out in the studio on record company time (see Bloc Party). Some debuts might find their poetry in everyday life, a vein of experience that can’t be mined on a second album that was written between snorts of cocaine from the naked bodies of groupies (see Arctic Monkeys). Sometimes, the group might respond to the pressure of sudden success by making an overwrought concept album (see The Streets). Other times, it might even be the listener’s fault: the debut album was so fresh and exciting that when the follow-up doesn’t shake the earth, the listener chucks a sad. Fickle consumers that we are, this happens to the best of us.
Sheffield’s The Long Blondes made a great debut album in 2006 called Someone to Drive You Home and now we’ve got the follow-up, Couples. Does it suffer from the sophomore slump? Honestly, yes. Couples falls into a number of the traps which beset second albums. It feels rushed, the songwriting and lyricism is diminished, it takes an ill-conceived stylistic left turn, and it even features some appalling cover art. But in spite of all this, it remains a partial success.
The beauty of Someone to Drive You Home was mostly about front-woman Kate Jackson. There was nothing too revolutionary about the band’s blend of 60’s pop, punk and new wave, but the album was an absolute delight because The Long Blondes could pen a rock tune catchier than syphilis to back Jackson’s wonderful, forthright, and at times hilarious lyricism. Maybe it’s just a reflection of the patriarchal nature of rock music, but I’d struggle to name another front-woman who sings so incisively about boys, girls and relationships. It sounds lame, but it’s actually a revelation to hear a woman sing lines like: “Where do you go when you’ve finished work/You should have been home an hour ago/And I’ve got your tea laid out like some kind of fifties housewife”.
The problem with Couples is that The Long Blondes sound like they’re unaware of their strengths. The album half-heartedly tries on a bit of dance-punk for size, with mixed results, on show in opener “Century”. Other songs, notably “Here Comes the Serious Bit”, sound at best like B-sides from the debut. But the worst sin of the album is that Kate Jackson no longer has her trademark vocal and lyrical presence. Sadly lacking are the witty lines that defined the debut, replaced by repetitive angst (“Century”, “Round the Hairpin”), and aural filler (“I Liked the Boys”, “Erin O’Connor”). Cheekiness was much more becoming on Jackson than the faux-darkness of Couples songs like “I’m Going to Hell”.
But not all is slump on Couples. “Guilt” exhibits everything that’s great about The Long Blondes, right down to some snarled lyrics about an unfaithful protagonist and her loathed fling, and is a legitimate dance-punk hit. “Too Clever by Half” is sexy as fuck, Jackson eschewing her standard talk-sing for a sultry, half-whispered croon.
At the end of album closer “I’m Going to Hell”, Jackson asks “Would you forgive me now?”. Sure we do, Kate. Just don’t go to hell before you make another album as good as your first.
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