Following a 10-year relationship, Pip Blom and Willem Smit (frontman of Personal Trainer) have made their first and only record as a duo – Long Fling. The self-titled record is a truly collaborative effort, with sessions often ending in arguments due to the pair’s passion.
‘Remember that time we had Chinese for breakfast and you threw up in the sink’ is the opening line of ‘Pig’, the opening track, and this perfectly sums up exactly what you can expect from this album. Rather than lovey-dovey tales of romance, Pip and Willem are more concerned with the more mundane elements of domestic ‘bliss’. And it’s all delivered against jaunty hooks and vocal delivery that fits somewhere between Wet Leg and Cake.
‘Mouse House’ opens with a shuffling bass while the words ‘I think you’re in my home’ are repeated with increasing despair. ‘Flung’ veers between slacker pop and ‘Trimm Trabb’-era Blur, albeit with some quite devastating observations: ‘If you’d seen me, I’d have acted like I knew nothing at all. I’d pretend I’d have forgotten your face’. ‘For Someone’ is an argument over apartment rent played out against DIY bedroom pop sounds and a touch of Frankie Cosmos: ‘How come you don’t have the cash?’
‘Cool Bottle Water Park’ reminded us of Panic Shack as Pip demands ‘Pretend that you’re in control now’ while ‘Tossed’ has a touch of Biffy in its angular guitars and heavier tone. This one again veers back to the marvels of the mundane as the duo talk about paper cuts and odd socks.
‘Peter Dickens’ closes the album in Moldy Peaches style alt-folk. There’s a to and fro between the pair as they remember words jotted down in a notebook, not feeling special anymore and thinking about someone too much…
Long Fling offers a perfect snapshot of modern love, lust and disputes between the most passionate of creatives – all wrapped up in hooks you’ll be humming for weeks.
