The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes
Someone To Drive You Home
(Rough Trade)
A stylized band from Sheffield, England, The Long Blondes make it big, plying kitchen-sink drama and bringing a charity-shop romanticism to their tales of youth, sex and outsiders. This sounds an awful lot like the tale of Pulp, the best group from the mid-’90s Brit-pop era. Just over a decade since that band released their masterpiece Different Class, the upstart quintet The Long Blondes are following the same blueprint to success. Someone To Drive You Home introduces lead singer Kate Jackson, a beret- and tweed dress-wearing hipster who sings about ’60s movies glam and spouts diatribes against boys and lonely nights. The album plays like advice to young women from a cool older sister. “Once and Only Again”—with the refrain “I know what it feels like to be your age”—and “Heaven Help The New Girl” implores teenaged girls to ditch their boyfriends and enjoy their independence, and gives them a heroine in the process. Jackson’s direct conversations as lyrics make for an exciting listen. Critics declared Brit-pop dead near the turn of the new millennium, but they were wrong. Brit-pop still lives, and thrives, as long as groups such as The Long Blondes continue to bring the style, substance, wit and most importantly, fun, to music.
—Johnston Farrow
categories: Coast pick