Partly recorded in a barn and a church, sequenced into two ‘sides’ like a vinyl record and refined during huge support shows with The Who and The Blockheads last year, The Standard Lamps’ second album Long Lost Love wants to be from 1978 so much it’s virtually phoning Operation Yewtree to hustle for radio play.
There’s a meaty mod-rock heft to 12:15, the title track and the Celtic-tinged It Won’t Be Long, so you can see why Townshend and Daltrey are fans, but the more interesting corners reflect the new-wave urban spike-pop of Squeeze and Elvis Costello (The Model World).
An air of fuddyism pervades though, due to the rootsy skiffle-blues of Living With Mum And Dad, 50s rock’n’roll finale You Don’t Listen To Your Records Anymore and Dim And Dismal, a token song about not understanding why kids these days always have their noses in their phones that might as well be called What Is A Whatsapp?. ‘Standard’ is right.
