Now there’s nothing like wearing yer influences on your sleeve, but for large portions of this split, The Boyfriends are completely in love with the idea of being The Smiths the way you might have been in love with Morrissey before he came over all rubbish. First track ‘No Tomorrow’ is all precise enunciation and loping Hook bassline. The chiming guitars and booming baritone promise great 80s-inspired fun, but the whole thing’s weighed down by some pretty hackneyed lyrics: “Live like there’s no tomorrow/ This very day could be your last” and variations thereon. Second track ‘I Love You’, although it’s the 387th song I’ve heard by that title, pushes things a bit further, opening with a torrid squall of white noise that makes me sit up and listen. But unfortunately I then find myself listening to couplets like “Cupid’s scored a direct hit/I’d do anything for you” – more’s the pity, sung without a trace of the detached humour that might save the lyrics from the banality to which they unfortunately consign what is otherwise a pretty decent tune.

On the flip, we get a couple of tracks from The Long Blondes, who presumably would make a lovely couple with the Boyfriends, and whose take on things is pretty straightforward, female-fronted jangly pop music of the sort that’s been on seven inches for decades and will hopefully remain so for a long time to come. ‘Autonomy Boy’ crosses the line between the punkier edge of Comet Gain and The Would-Be-Goods stripped of much of their tweeness. A promising start, but the (roughly) eponymic ‘Long Blonde’ is loads more fun, adding a rough-hewn surf-pop edge and a welcome change of pace in the spoken-word middle eight. The Ramones, relationships and rock ‘n’ roll – these girls sing about the important things.

The Boyfriends
The Long Blondes

Posted: 11|8|04 at 8:55 pm. Filed under: record reviews.
Comments and pings are currently closed.