Someone To Drive You Home

Put simply, this is fantasy pop, performed to perfection.

Although none of the new material is even remotely bad, a handful of diverse tracks on the album's second half exceed the high standards set by the hand-picked singles.

The majority of these upbeat songs have howling vocals, scything guitar and, unusually for a current Brit group, a rhythm section that manages to be danceable without having to go out of its way to prove it--but it’s the slower tracks that end each side that turn the album into something cohesive.

Most so-called "cinematic" records earn that distinction due to some quirk of reverb or their use of space, but the Long Blondes only have modern England's typically confined, 17-year-old-from-Doncaster guitar-dudish sound. Instead, it's the songs themselves, their narratives, and their characters that speak to the band's widescreen ambitions.

An honest, forthright and accomplished LP.

An excellent debut album, full of brash confidence and seductive charm.

Someone to Drive You Home is undeniably derivative, and over 12 songs the appeal of Jackson's fruity voice can dim. Still, with its cynical heart and high-octane bite, it's impossible not to warm to its visceral, lusty company.

Thankfully, it's even better than expected.

An unexpected delight.

The Long Blondes sound pleasingly frayed around the edges. [Dec 2006, p.118]

Someone to Drive You Home is one of those albums that's honest to goodness fun, and pulling it off with as much pastiche as the Long Blondes makes it one of the year's nicest arrivals.

The Long Blondes have not only made a great album, but are a band to watch. [Summer 2007, p.81]

The songs, sometimes overtly formalist and stylistically unadventurous, are invigorated by the enthusiasm and character of their delivery.

Over a strident indie-rock soundtrack, singer Kate Jackson comes across like a female Morrissey. [Dec 2006, p.138]

Frantic guitars, hooks that replay in your head, skeptical lust - they're all here.

Ridiculously entertaining. [Jul 2007, p.98]

At times here it feels like Debbie Harry took a wrong turn on the way to Studio 54 and wound up with Shed 7.