Big infatuation: the Long Blondes MP3s

Photo by Dean Chalkley It’s been kind of a gloomy year so far. Most of my favorite records have been either sad, serious, quiet or angry. Now that’s all well and good, and probably more reflective of the times we're in, but sometimes a guy just wants to rock out. Get a nice little buzz going and hit the town like an Ali right hook. That’s why I’m so grateful that Sheffield's Long Blondes have finally issued their long-hinted-at debut, Someone To Drive You Home (in England, anyway). It’s so overloaded with joyful, danceable rhythms that I’m already envisioning whole bars of Brooklyn girls doing that hipster heel-hip swivel I find so endearing. Led by the hyper-charismatic Kate Jackson, the Long Blondes excel at sweet, hook-driven Britpop. They hammer out choruses that will cheerfully pinball in your head for hours. They charge at you with bouncy, elastic(a) guitar lines that guarantee your feet at a minimum will be moving. It’s music that smartly calls back everything as recent as Franz Ferdinand’s “Tell Me Tonight” to as early as ‘60s girl groups and Blondie’s new-wave pop. But the band’s success is as much due to its songs as its carefully-coifed ancestry. Every track on Someone to Drive You Home feels like a winner without exception, and though there've been four quality singles (“Giddy Stratospheres,” Separated By Motorways,” “Weekend Without Makeup” and “Once and Never Again”), most of the others could’ve happily stood in instead. As we head into December's doldrums, this album arrives as a much-needed pick-me-up, both literally and figuratively. As the winter chill settles in and the inevitable holiday blues strikes, I'll be playing this one on repeat, faithfully tapping out the gloom. Because while I almost never spring for imports, this is one party that I just couldn't afford to miss. * MP3: "Giddy Stratospheres" - The Long Blondes from Someone To Drive You Home * MP3: "Lust In The Movies" - The Long Blondes from Someone To Drive You Home [Buy it] * Band Website: The Long Blondes Tags: Long Blondes, Kate Jackson, Giddy Stratospheres, Britpop, MP3