Anybody else hear the new Los Campesinos! album?

Anybody else heard the (very) new Los Campesinos! album? I have to review it for a long-lead magazine with very short turn around time, and there's so much to digest I'm having a hard time working my way through it. I was hoping to be immediately blown away, as I was with "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed," but that didn't happen. I can't tell whether the album is a grower or just a mess.

oh boy if this leaked i'm taking the day off

I don't think it's leaked, but it would take more than a day off to get through. There's so much going on here... it's like when you accidentally open two MySpace pages and multiple songs play concurrently. There's a lot to love, but it's really busy, even by the band's standards.

i can never really digest the albums until someone posts the lyrics on songmeanings

Wow wow wow. Long lead time, but if promos are out and about, I will wade through hell and high water to get my hands on a copy.

Romance is Boring Album Art released:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk265/myfirstmine/ROMANCEISBORINGALBUMART.jpg

It's very...um...I quite like the blurry soft-focus art direction of this and the cover for the single even if the pictures themselves are a little disturbing, I guess.

several websites a few weeks ago were running a picture of a girl - soft focus close up of her face.
the click through went nowhere (even i clicked on the advert on quietus !)
when i asked the quietus team about the advert even they had no idea as to who the advert was for...
i feel somewhat deflated that this all was for an album i have little interest in.

I don't think it's leaked, but it would take more than a day off to get through. There's so much going on here... it's like when you accidentally open two MySpace pages and multiple songs play concurrently. There's a lot to love, but it's really busy, even by the band's standards.

yes, but as it turns out, the more time i spend with it, the more it opens up. there are a few tracks that i'm going to need lyrics courtesy of gareth to comprehend, but this really is a staggering achievement, imo.

i think i still might like we are beautiful, we are doomed more but it's early days yet. so yeah, my verdict is 'grower' - the first listen through there were maybe three tracks that blew me away and a lot of WTF?!?! and i now unabashedly love the first half of the album - the second half should hopefully have settled in by the new year. In Medias Res, We've Got Your Back + Straight in at 101 are exactly what i was hoping for.

i mean, there were always indications that they had something like this in them - even hold on now, youngster had its moments of feedback and fuzz, but there's a willingness to go for ugly/unpleasant here that wasn't present before, perhaps? or that would have been couched in pretty arrangements or knowing irony before?

also, the horns are a nice touch.

several websites a few weeks ago were running a picture of a girl - soft focus close up of her face.
the click through went nowhere (even i clicked on the advert on quietus !)

^ this is totally fantastic

this album is

amaaaazing

YES IT IS. also, welcome back j0rdan! merry jewish xmas etc.

<3 <3 <3

more post-coital
less post rock

i agree that it's a "grower" i guess, but not in that you don't like at first and then all of a sudden get it--more like you listen to it once and know right away "five more listens and this is gonna be my favorite album ever." it's not tricky, just dense.

my only complaint here is that the first few songs kind of limp to the finish

i think "in media res" might be the best song they've ever written. in general the first four songs are astounding. pretty much every song clicked for me at a different time tho. even more than usual this one seems to me like gareth kind of scrawling all over some compositions. it makes sense knowing more now about the band that they've retreated from whatever elements of pop they had (maybe "there are listed buildings" & "romance is boring" excepted) but i don't really think that it's affected them in anyway. in fact i could see this becoming my favorite album of theirs.

it strikes me as very mature, and i don't want that to seem like a placeholder word just bcuz it's their third album. maybe i mean that it seems to me like the band is confident that their fanbase writ large will accept and digest and let gestate and album that doesn't jump out at you with songs like "my year in lists" or "death to los campesinos" or "miserabilia" or "you'll need those fingers for crossing". i had to listen to it like eight times to even really compile any thoughts about it.

whoops, last few songs** obv

the very end is a little weak, but "do not make an enemy of me" through "letters from me to charlotte" is maybe my favorite run on the album. it's a little hard to tell though because EVERY SONG HAS 5 CHORUSES. i don't know if i like it better than Youngster but it does kind of feel deeper--deep in that there are more songs which have more going on in them, but also like this album is actually effectively emotional at times. the lyrics on their first two that were about sadness never actually got to me because they seem too cognizant of themselves and self-parodic, but "who fell asleep in" and "the sea is a good place" kind of choke me up a little; other than that it's just more of the same, which is exactly what i wanted it to be.

it seems like every indie album that rises to popularity nowadays does so on the argument "c'mon bro these are just catchy and well thought out songs what's not to get?" and i have no idea why this band is not riding that wave. if this album doesn't explode i'm gonna be a little indignant because there are six people in this band and they need money

cannot get the title track out of my head

I mean, the Coda is sort of whatever but This is a Flag. There is No Wind is sort of awesome, as is Letters from Me to Charlotte. Right now it's looking like this mayyyybe, and I still need to give the back half more time to sink in.

We've Got Your Back (which is totally poppy, btw, j0rdan)
Straight in at 101
Letters From Me to Charlotte
In Medias Res
Romance is Boring
There Are Listed Buildings
The Sea is a Good Place to Think About the Future
This is a Flag. There is No Wind
Who Fell Asleep In
I Warned You: Do Not Make an Enemy of Me
I Just Sighed I Just Sighed, Just So You Know
Plan A
Coda
Heart Swells/100-1
200-102

Those first two records = some of my favorite records of the last ten years. Getting ridiculous, how much I find myself still loving this band, in spite of the song titles, (many of the) lyrics, music videos, etc.. I've had the chance to listen to this a few times, and while I think it's a small step down from the quality of those records, I still love it. Big songs. Good stuff.

push comes to shove & this is pretty much the only band i really care about

pfork review running today is good -- nice to read another voice on them besides marc hogan's (not that there's anything wrong with him, but you know)

fwiw i wrote a review http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/119499-los-campesinos-romance-is-boring/

Listening to this for the first time. One of the only acts I care about enough to go buy the actual record. It almost doesn't seem like the band I fell in love with but another band I can care about in totes different ways. RIB and TALB are the nuts, need many, many listens to adjust to the rest. Grebt article Sarge.

thx sam

j0rdan wdy think of johnny foreigner

you know, i haven't listened to them -- i usually dig the bands that LC! tours with over there tho (aside from the sky larkin dude)

are they good?

i like em a lot - quite a bit of the shoutiness of LC! but at times more tuneful and dreamy. i'd recommend them to you for sure

i've been meaning to listen to one of these albums in forever, and despite how much it seems like the right thing to do to listen to them in chronological order, everything i read about the new one makes it sound like i'd like it way better.

Have to admit being surprised that this didn't get BNM over at Pitchfork, between that review and the score even higher than Surfer Blood (which did get that nod).

awhile ago a friend and i were talking about how it's becoming a cliche for noise rock bands to grow up to embrace poppiness/coherence, and friend said something along the lines of 'it'd be way more interesting the other way around.' i get the impression that's sort of whats goin on from the p4k review.

Have to admit being surprised that this didn't get BNM over at Pitchfork, between that review and the score even higher than Surfer Blood (which did get that nod).

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, February 1, 2010 4:50 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah :-( -- i bet it will be one of those things where it ends up in the top 20/25 of their year end, and surfer blood or w/e ends up at 40

samosa, this is their most non-pop in terms of song structure and instrumentation -- it still has hooks but it's not sugary & bright & singing about parties with punch (no matter how sardonic) anymore

"in media res" nearly stops my heart every time

Such a fucking great album, but I think j0rdan underestimates how poppy a lot of it still is. It's not sugary and bright (but WAB,WAD wasn't either). It's more like insanely catchy melodies and choruses have now been buried not only under sarcasm but also under waves and waves of feedback and noise. While remaining incredibly accessible - it just takes two or three listens this time for it all to click together.

"In Medias Res" is astounding, mind you. Didn't know they had that in them.

that's generally true

"a scar in the shape of the show me state" is one of the better 'poppier' ones

are they good?

― big hoos state of mind (J0rdan S.), Monday, February 1, 2010 4:44 PM (10 minutes ago)

First album was great. Sounded like LC! if they listened to more The Hold Steady than, I don't know, Belle & Sebastian? There's that low-rent poetry-of-youth thing going on. New one is pretty shit, though. Very disappointing.

yeah i was referring to the first i should clarify - i haven't heard the 2nd JF

Pitchfork, you give them a great review/score, but no BNM tag? So many emotions!

awhile ago a friend and i were talking about how it's becoming a cliche for noise rock bands to grow up to embrace poppiness/coherence, and friend said something along the lines of 'it'd be way more interesting the other way around.' i get the impression that's sort of whats goin on from the p4k review.

― samosa gibreel, Monday, 1 February 2010 22:51 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol christina aggy gonna make the best album of the year. in media res is indeed terrific on second listen.

I've seen this band live twice and been extremely underwhelmed by them. This upsets me, as they are the kind of band I like, even though I don't like them.

I think Romance is Boring would have blown my mind more if I hadn't latched on so closely to We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. That mini-album was so perfectly captured what I wanted to hear from that band that it was almost an impossible act to follow.

I'm a little bit in Jordan's boat in that way, where this is one of the only newer indie-rock bands I really, really care about anymore. But I still have mixed emotions about Romance is Boring. It could have been one of my favorite albums of the year if it was just a little bit more immediate and maybe a lot less overworked.

This Album is Boring

you're boring

i kind of caned this record so much on the leak that having actually bought a real copy i've still not listened to it. i feel like the two poppy ('poppy') numbers in the second half of the record don't really make any narrative sense (it's meant to be a narrative, right?) and are there just for respite. not sure if this is a good thing or not. like them a lot as songs though

this is kind of their welcome to the black parade

It's horrible. I don't know how any of you can deal with the vocals.

by listening to, or having previous experience of listening to, many of the hundreds-to-thousands of indie bands with similarly technically inept singers

i'm kind of curious whether anyone would want to recommend this band to people who, er, don't already like "that kind of thing." (as the nme review puts it.)

i suspect gareth campesinos! would be of the opinion that striving for honest self-expression sort of leads directly to sort of trancendentally valid and/or echt art. i kind of don't know about that.

so about 'pop':

while this record does a lot of things to be not-pop (test case, i suppose, the solo on the title track/single: if anyone hasn't heard it, know it's a collection of effects pedal blurts making no attempt at melody.) (nb. i kind of think it's great) it's still the case that every track here is

i. a first-person narrative
ii. which the listener is intended to relate to
iii. which makes some attempt to be catchy
iv. and in which the music is these to emotionally support the narrative

i could probably decompress iv better. i did at least delete the phrase 'objective correlative' . what i'm getting at is that basically the listener-function this record performs is an orthodox pop song one.

i dunno, i think the idea of whether they're pop is probably caught up with all the dancing-in-place gareth does in re. hating-being-an-indie-kid/being-an-indie-kid. of course, it's not like he came up with the music. but i kind of wonder what kind of exit structure they can have from, er, demographics

i'm not even sure i'm making sense to myself here. point four should read 'there', not 'these'

this is kind of their welcome to the black parade

― thomp, Friday, February 5, 2010 6:12 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

i'm not sure what i think about this, but 'black parade' is one of my fav albums of the decade

i'm kind of curious whether anyone would want to recommend this band to people who, er, don't already like "that kind of thing." (as the nme review puts it.)

i would recommend the first album so they get an idea of where the band is coming from now + i still think it's their best album

It's not boring - it's really not boring wtf - but the sound of it, the shrillness, does grate after a while.

i wouldn't recommend the first record to people who don't like "that kind of thing" either - !

but i kind of wonder what kind of exit structure they can have from, er, demographics

― thomp, Friday, February 5, 2010 1:08 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

they can't & i don't think they want one. i think gareth has always been mocking himself anyway -- "war poetry carved in your door with a stanley knife" is mocking in "my year in lists" but that's what his songs pretty much are. i've always likened him as much to pete wentz as anyone -- both lampoon their 'scenes' and the most self-serious members of the scene, but they themselves are as histrionic & melodramatic as anyone. i appreciate that point of view though.

xp i do think people could access the band through "you! me! dancing" & "my year in lists" & "broken heartbeats sound like breakbeats" but gareth is always going to be a huge breaking point

they can't & i don't think they want one -- this is a good answer, but in some ways it makes me a little sad, you know?

it would me too if i didn't feel like they've been able to grow & change significantly -- and btw they certainly recognize their mortality as a band which is why they've put out three albums already. you can't be making los campesinos! music at the age of 28 (at least i don't think you can...)

is the itunes bonus track good?

It's um....strange? I've had it for a week now and still don't know what to make of it.

It's um....strange? I've had it for a week now and still don't know what to make of it.

Which seems fitting for a bonus track from this album.

Also: btw they certainly recognize their mortality as a band which is why they've put out three albums already. you can't be making los campesinos! music at the age of 28

Jordan, that is probably the single smartest thing I have ever read about this band.

I feel like the band has been pretty candid about that, even. It'd be quite interesting to hear where they might go, as they grow up, but I don't know how much I'd actually want anything to do with it.

As it stands, as recently as two years ago I would probably have told you that you were crazy that I'd count LC! as one of my favorite bands of the decade, in two years time. Seeing them in that "Tweexcore" video alone was a shock that nearly killed me/scared me off, after just knowing their music set to cartoons, for months. An acquired taste, in extra-musical terms. That kind of feeds into my curiosity/fear about a maturing Los Campesinos!, in not-so-tangential ways. Just seems like a rooted-in-their-now kind of act.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that I think the bonus track is shit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All%27s_Well_That_Ends

Yeah. The Princess Version is sort of eh but hoping the rest is cool.

Ollie just left/got booted from the band for unspecified reasons, so hopefully this is just a finding their feet thing and not an au revoir.

Anyone want to recommend me similar-but-better bands?

Ollie just left/got booted from the band for unspecified reasons, so hopefully this is just a finding their feet thing and not an au revoir.

― Alex in Montreal, Tuesday, July 13, 2010 3:07 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

damn wth

Did you not see the two posts on the website? Yeah. RIP j0rdan's favourite nekkid drummer.

u_u

fuck, i love this band

"in media res" still melts me

funny that the sky larkin dude i hated on upthread is now a permanent member of the band :-/

every girl i ever kissed
i was thinking of
a pro footballer

what ended up being the story w/ ollie, btw

STOP REVIVING THREADS WITH MISLEADING TITLES

i mean, not you particularly, but.

i never saw them on their last tour because, let's face it, i would have been the oldest person in attendance ):

an old coworker of mine knew gareth, stayed at his place once. she looked in his wardrobe and it was 100% band t-shirts, one side to the other

new album comes out in November, lead single probably a couple months prior. mastering is going on now, second issue of Heat Rash likely to precede the album, probably by summer's end/September, I expect.

this band sneakily went from making "immediate" albums to "grower" albums.

oh....this is the wrong thread. shit, my bad.

oh boy if this leaked i'm taking the day off

― house of flying jaggers (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 13, 2009