 | Los Campesinos! |
I have pretty much been a fan of Los Campesinos! from the first instant I heard the first few tracks on their debut Hold on Now, Youngster…, and having loved and listened to their prior efforts and having seen them live twice I was really looking forward to this one, but also wondering if we would just get some more of the same. But I should have known they wouldn’t disappoint me at all and bring me something familiar and definitively LC! but also something that goes deeper and darker than their prior efforts to show some real evolution from the band.
The title of the album kind of gives away the tone of this one, although based on the upbeat, witty, ironic songs that littered the first two releases, you wonder to see how they could really come up with an album that can get into the depths of why romance can really be a kick in the balls sometimes, but they have really done it here. The sound is similar but the lyrics are much more pointed and sober here, and I don’t think poking fun or quick wit becomes as much a focus here as really trying to capture a feeling or a scene, and they do it very well.
It is a bit darker, and the songs are a bit more fleshed out in different directions. What hasn’t changed is the quick bursts of energy that come and go and ebb and flow within the album, in their trademark way. Of course Gareth’s vocals and lyrics are always forefront in any discussion of LC!, and here he has done a phenomenal job of capturing the despair, longing, wanting, and heartbreak that makes ‘romance’ such a sticky proposition at times. I think this one is much more serious, but it is also done very cleverly and those little bits and pieces of moments and glances really piece together to give you that sense of despair or love gone wrong.
I think that is where the band has grown on this record, in being able to convey a feeling or something universal through some basic situation or lyric, much in the way that Matt Berninger always does with The National, it is non-specific but totally universal in the same way. Couple that with Gareth’s usual wit and way of putting a humorous/ironic spin on almost anything and you have some great lines in here. It has been said before but the opening for ‘Straight in at 101′ is classic stuff (‘I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock/feels like the build-up takes forever but you never get me off’). He really has some great lyrics in here that capture something only the way that he can, all the way down to the final lyric of the album, screaming out finally “I can’t believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea”.
You have some classic straight ahead LC! punk rock songs here (“There Are Listed Buildings”, “Straight in at 101″, “Romance is Boring”), but also there are some more fleshed out and somber songs (“I Just Sighed…”) that convey that sense of emotional emptiness and want that the record really revolves around. The whole record is really a parable that essentially says, as J. Geils Band once professed, “Love Stinks”, but in a much more rocking and interesting way obviously.
Anyway, even though the tone of the album is different (but still a natural progression from some of the more mature songs on We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed), this is still LC! and they still have that unmistakable delivery and style and ability to tackle songs in new and interesting ways that just work so well. Some of the standouts here are really the songs that they have experimented with new directions, songs like “We’ve Got Your Back” and “I Just Sighed” are really incredible songs and some of my favorites from their catalog now.
Once again a great album from these guys, it is a step in a different direction, but it still works. I would say that it is maybe a little less accessible than their prior two efforts, certainly more serious, and maybe not top to bottom as can’t-miss, but that isn’t really a knock, and actually makes it a great one to foster multiple listens. I think if you dug the first two then you can’t go wrong here, and it may not initially jump out at you as much as the last two, give it some time to percolate, and you will be right there.
BV Rate: 86
Los Campesinos! – We’ve Got Your Back – From Romance Is Boring
Los Campesinos! – Straight in at 101 – From Romance Is Boring
