the long blondes - "weekend without makeup" (from the weekend without makeup single, import available for purchase here.)

i've been holding back on this track b/c i wanted the single to be released officially before i posted it. after all, this is their first single w/ their new label, rough trade, and everyone should buy it if they can b/c the b-sides are even better.

furthermore, i'm glad i held back. "like some kind of fifties housewife!" kate! i used those exact words to a friend of mine this week! the long blondes seem to be singing her life; there are worse bands who could be singing your life. arab strap, for one.

here, the blondes sound a bit like pulp, ca. his 'n' hers, only the guitar riffs are much more sour. maybe that's b/c, on that album, jarvis was singing about girls whereas kate is that girl. she deserves more than she's getting, and she doesn't even ask for much, just what's she due. what seems to have happened, though, is that her man has fallen out of love w/ her, leaving kate in love alone--only he's still hanging around, stopping in every once in a while, to fuck w/ her head & heart & nothing else. he goes about his business as if nothing's changed, like he's still her man. as the chorus goes, though, you can love or be in love, but they're two v. different things. when the other person doesn't love you back, one moves necessarily from loving to merely being in love, which is a damn lonesome place to be. he's not keeping up his end of the bargain, and if she stops loving him, the whole ridiculous edifice will come falling down, leaving the young lady out on the debris, in total ruin.

but is it such a bad thing? really? true, one has to relocate and runs the risk of being without shelter for some time. bear in mind, though, that "there are wants and there are needs," and neither are being met anymore. far better to leave the site behind, condemned & abandoned, and instead seek out land far outside of the flood plain, where one frequently drowns in her own tears. there may be no hope for kate : she's got this boy under her skin. happily, though, and contrary to psychological evidence, even a dog will be kicked around only so many times before it looks for new ownership, and a girl humiliated only too often before she orders an eviction notice. this girl i know--oh, i hope it's but a matter of time before she's loosed herself from this entanglement, when this lout is out from under her skin and out of her hair entirely.