The Long Lost - Self Titled [Album]

Ninja Tune

March 5, 2009, 12:36 AM

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We all know the old story. Boy and girl go to high school together, meet in the school orchestra – he takes up the double bass and she handles the flute (cheeky). They hit it off and decide to go to ballroom dance club every Tuesday night as partners. They do the foxtrot, they do the waltz and they drink on school nights.

After four years apart, they strike it up again, form a band called The Long Lost, throw soirees, play Balderdash and lie in bed the day after watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Ok, so it’s not such a common tale (apart from the last bit), but after a few spins of The Long Lost’s acutely detailed patchwork of a self-titled LP, you’ll feel like you know their story inside out.

The Long Lost are California-dwelling husband-and-wife duo Laura and Alfred Darlington. You may already know the latter as avant-electronic musician and Welsh mountain range enthusiast Daedelus.

The Long Lost is an album about love, and the self-production really helps to bring this across. The guitar finger-picking underpins many of the tracks sound, so detailed that you can almost hear every ridge of Alfred’s thumb-print as it brushes the lower strings. The sparse percussion arrangements are just roomy enough to sound like you’re in the room with them.

Saturated, fuzzy synths interject from time to time, giving you a feeling of nostalgia and subconsciously linking The Long Lost to some dusty happy memory of yours. Every nylon guitar tone, lightly brushed hi-hat or stroked snare skin, and every hushed, intimate lyric is imbued with fragility and vulnerability, but there is also often a hint of melancholy.

For example, in Overmuch, Laura’s sultry vocal laments:

‘The curse of perfect vision / Each and every detail so perfectly clear / And each requires a decision / I fear.’

It’s this kind of pessimism that keeps the LP far from the realm of husband/wife sickly sweetness, and firmly in the “luvved-up but we’re still all about the music” camp.

Siren Song sees the greatest combination of the pair’s respective strengths. It opens with a lush, sepia string sample, supported by a gently fuzzing bass synth and develops into an expertly balanced, oddly soothing duet. The title is then subverted by the presence of an actual police siren – a playful touch on such a gorgeously deep track.

Lyrically, the album is entertaining, well written and explores a hugely broad spectrum. The only major exception to this is on Colour, where the two sing inanely about what colours things are:

‘What is pink? / A rose is pink / By the fountain spring / What is red? / A poppy’s red.’

….It goes on, ad nausea. It’s obvious the Darlingtons have gone for stark simplicity here, but in all honesty, it misses the mark somewhat.

That’s not to say this technique is unsuccessful elsewhere. In Domestics, The Long Lost sing about the little details of their relationship:

‘Just for old times sake / Let’s throw a bash / We’ll have a soiree / Play Balderdash.’

The whole song could be a transcript from an everyday conversation between the two, but its quirkiness is undeniably charming.

Laura’s hushed, breathy vocal is fantastic throughout and her sometimes archaic turn of phrase lends the album a slightly other-worldly, Tim Burton-esque quality. Whether either of them have scissors for hands is unspecified, however. The discerning listener should probably assume not.

The Long Lost is a lovely record. Lyrically diverse, and musically interesting, an album for the lovers and the lovelorn – it’s the perfect soundtrack to Spring.

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