James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
With songs that almost permanently seem to revolve around never ending heartbreak, usually about girls but occasionally about football, it is no surprise that Los Campesinos! have found themselves a dedicated following amongst more sensitive kids in the music scene at the moment. “Hello Sadness” is their most emotionally scarred work yet.
Opener “By Your Hand” at least has a go at making breakups sound fun, even if the keyboard line is straight from the cheesiest part of the eighties. Here frontman Gareth is at his lyrical best with lines like “fate’s a cruel mistress, girl, the prettiest in the world” better communicating his feelings than most of the attempts at more weighty poetry that come later on in the album. Indeed as the songs pass by, with the occasional exception, things get less and less moving and more than slightly tedious. All the trademarks of a slightly pretentious and dull indie pop album are here, including plenty of unconvincing string sections.
Los Campesinos! may have been praised by a good few in their time but four albums in they still apparently lack the ability to marry interesting music and potent lyricism. Throughout the ten tracks on offer on “Hello Sadness”, it quickly becomes obvious that nothing happens. There are no bursts of energy, or anything gloriously low key. Even “Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions)” and its entertaining football theme are stymied by a lack of musical invention just when it seems that the lyrics have reached their most ingenious. At other times, such as on “Baby I Got the Death Rattle”, slightly more intriguing music is rendered ineffective by rather overthought lyrics such as “I am an ass, that’s why I bray”.
What arguably makes this album worse than its predecessors is that, where in the past it was easy to overlook the flaws Los Campesinos! were riddled with in favour of dancing and having a good time, this album has removed such an opportunity. Los Campesinos! have pulled their most serious face on “Hello Sadness” and it does not suit them.
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