Something Sheffield charity-shop glamsters The Long Blondes have in bucketloads is style. They also have confidence, showmanship and possibly even panache. Their latest single 'Appropriation(By Any Other Name)' displays all these qualities, and does so with a unfussy ramshackle charm which you’d have to be quite heartless not to be won over by.
It’s sweet-yet-jagged new wave pop music tumbling downhill, the instruments seeming to hit the right notes almost at random as the song flails its arms to keep from tripping. But fear not! For these tunes have far too much momentum to ever stutter out before their time is up, and for the disoriented listener the focal point of Kate’s strong, tuneful and gutsy vocals suffice to tie it all up neatly and keep your ears on the ball… or something.
Mixed metaphors aside, this is a brilliant single from a really rather special band. It’s chaotic, alive, sparky, original and, as I may have pointed out before, utterly charming – and I think that you, dear reader, need it in your life. That rhetorically troublesome ball is in your court…
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8's Score