Track By Track: Blue House on their curious and charming debut album, Suppose

James Howard and Ursula Russell (Blue House) were members of the bands Fiction and Drop Out Venus before they joined forces to pen songs on topics ranging from domesticity to outer space.

Over the past year the London duo have shared a handful of songs from their debut record - the brilliant '90s jangle-pop of "Hot Air Balloons" to name just one - but the full fruits of their labour are at last on display. Suppose, we're told, invites listeners into a world of "under-the-surface quotidian terror".

Read Howard's explanations below and stream the record to find out for yourself.

I Found My Limit

I suppose you couldn’t steal playstation games now, unless you’ve got hacking skills. Do they still make games on CDs? Don’t they just crawl into your TV now? Speaking of stealing, this bridge has klepto-fingers all over the Everly Brothers.

John The Unready

Hmm. Probably the best song you’ll hear today. If only there was an animation starring an anthropomorphised rabbit to go with it. ‘Unready’ used to mean ill-advised rather than badly prepared. Bring back epithets, we say. Just add ‘the’ between your first and last name if you can’t get your brain into gear.

Hot Air Balloons

A man goes to a party on his own and doesn’t talk to anybody. A travelling laughing gas salesman arrives to peddle his wares. The lonely man hands over a fiver and now has a balloon in each hand — but no hand free to take them. This song has nothing to do with that fable, but both have something do with love it seems.

Museum Workers

This is a sad song. Respect and love to museums and their workers. The zero hour/that’s when my love comes tumbling down/that’s when my love begins to shine.

Ear To The Door

Blue House once sang a duet of "Walking After Midnight" on top of a table at a house party. When the table didn’t break they had to instantly write this song. Received wisdom is that being in a ‘key’ is to have a sense of home, so when you hear the second and last chords in the verse it’s like you’ve woken up on the night bus as it pulls into the stop you’d left from.

Simple Song

Not so simple to make this one — we had no verses and almost threw it away until Ursula took on the responsibility for the first time on this record. This is a different mix from the one put out as a single which was a bit too hey-you-there-listen-to-me-!

Albert Played The Euphonium

When you play this on the vinyl an automated voice interrupts the flow and says BASED ON A TRUE STORY. The euphonium is suggested to be the closest instrument to the human voice, though we all know that is the jew’s harp. One reviewer, in saying how wonderful this song was, praised the trumpet solo…dilly ding dilly dong man, concentrate!

January The Tenth

Not much is known on Mars regarding the topic of songs and singing. But it’s thought that they originated on earth transported by the first settlers as a way of helping the flora grow. Though so much of what we know of that time is guesswork and conjecture these days. Singing is left to the wind and the trees. It’s agreed they are most suitable to the task. The wind and the trees are rarely criticised, and on those few occasions that they are they just keep on singing.

Weatherman

The pathetic fallacy is the arrogance of human beings thinking that the sun shines to celebrate their programmed continuation of the species or the rain falls to commiserate the loss of a polo tournament. If you really want to know how you feel, stay up for 4 days, press your face close to the telly and wait for the messages.

Lay Down

But if the sun does shine, let it.

Suppose is released this Friday, 30 September via Whipped Cream Records.

Blue House play Rough Trade East in store on 3 October (7pm).