Indie Angsty English

You know what we don't talk about enough?  Los Campesinos!  That's what.  I'm going to apologize right now, because my writing is already getting formulaic in its review of bands/albums, but I can only be so sorry when writing about this particular gem.  "Los Campesinos!" is, unfortunately, entirely unrelated to the South/Central American movement among poor subsistence farmers looking for more wealth equality and freedom from harassment by paramilitaries, especially the FARC in Colombia, except in name, leftist leanings, and my undying appreciation for them.  "Los Campesinos!" rather, is from Cardiff, Wales, having formed at Cardiff University in the mid-naughts, though no members of the group were actually Cardiff natives. Los Campesinos!'s first recorded album of any relevance was "Hold On Now, Youngster," released in 2008. This album is something special.  LC! formed primarily playing live gigs for excited audiences around the University, and it shows.  This album is excited, this album is lively, this album is bright, and it's wall of sound.  I don't like wall of sound music.  But LC! know their balance, and even though it's the rare moment, maybe the start of "You!  Me!  Dancing!" or some such in which your ears are being assaulted by anything less than their full ensemble, it feels like you always get the relevant melody or lyrics cutting through all that, not simply rising above the waves of the sound of the rest of the group, rather, it rises distinct yet in complementary concert with these nets of sound.  I also don't like abstractions, but I'm not going to change that I used that one, either.  This album got a lot of critics to label them as "twee pop" and pay them no further heed (twee being a brit slang term for something sickeningly sweet, referring to their bright, upbeat, popping sound).  This, I am convinced, is only because these critics didn't bother to listen to Gareth.  The self-styled Gareth Campesinos is the primary vocal- and lyricist for LC!, and describes his inspirations as being from Modest Mouse and Broken Social Scene to obsessions with death (I promise, it shows in well-crafted metaphor, not in downer statements) and football (soccer, folks).  His lyrics are insightful, poetic, and tend towards the dark.  For evidence, I would refer you to, above all, the lyrics to "We are Beautiful, We are Doomed" from the album with the same name: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/loscampesinos/wearebeautifulwearedoomed.html

As Los Campesinos! have continued on, their sound as a whole has grown a little bit darker to match the nature of Gareth's lyrics, clearly visible in the albums "Romance is Boring," and "We are Beautiful, We are Doomed," and then, with the loss or transition of a few band members, a little bit more produced and synth-heavy in "Hello, Sadness" and "No Blues."  No Blues is their most recent album, released in 2013, many of these critics praise it as finally showing a "mature" sound, as this being an example of LC! finally coming into their own.  This is utter nonsense.  So much of what made LC! so incredible was how raw and youthful and idealistic their earlier albums were (and they fact that they used a glockenspiel of all things.  Who does that?  It was great).  This is a sound that isn't as marketable, but is hella more unique.  "No Blues" is still around the pinnacle of art, and still has some stellar tracks, most notably "Avocado Baby," and "What Death Leaves Behind," but the sound is distinctly more poppy, not in the sense of "being bright and exuberant and popping out from the speakers," but as in "like pop music," and the last time I heard them use a glockenspiel was in "Romance is Boring."

But if anyone has any doubt of their continued vitality, they're still killer live.  It'll ruin listening to recordings for you.  LC! may have lost some of their edge in the studio, but in person, they are every bit the local twee pop band they started as, with none of the negative connotations.  There is a magic in listening to any group live, but listening to the ramp up of "You! Me! Dancing!" crammed in tight with a bunch of strangers who all share only that they love a band that no one else has ever heard of in the midwest (and a certain propensity for thick-rimmed glasses) is exactly how Los Campesinos! was meant to be heard. Would recommend.

tl;dr:  Listen to Los Campesinos.  Listen to their early work.  Put in the effort of decyphering the words.  It's worth it.  Really.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc4GethJnBg