New albums can often be a worry - have the band found an interest in Belgian jazz? Have they gone for one avant-garde hour length track? The first line of the third offering from Los Campesinos is ‘Let’s talk about you for a minute, with the vomit in your gullet’ and any such fears dissipate immediately. The band has typically declared this to be an album about ‘the death and decay of the human body, lost love, mental breakdown, and football.’
Such a synopsis might seem glib, but the chaotic nature of the songs allow for the four themes to intermingle quite happily within any given four minutes.
Take the title track. ‘Romance is Boring’ is Los Campesinos doing what they do best - a mixture of competing vocals, sudden changes and lyrics about disappointment and boredom that all sounding strangely uplifting. There’s an aggressive clatter not unlike the most recent Cribs material but only if the Cribs were more of an extended family than three brothers. The big soundscape is present throughout, seen at its boisterous best with ‘I Just Sighed’. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know. Countless layers of instruments are somehow corralled into something coherent and the resulting sound is fantastic, something done to similar effect later in ‘The Sea Is a Great Place To Think About The Future’.
On the other hand, ‘These are Listed Buildings’ is a cheery affair, infused with brass but every bit Los Campesinos and a joyous little pop song. Noticeably, this one is cleaner and perhaps more accessible than songs on the previous albums, but nothing has been lost in the process. Infectious guitar lines still crop up where you least expect them to and sudden crashes of noise punctuate the verses. Similarly, In Media Res meanders through scratchy noise, strange interludes and clattering crescendos but somehow retains the thread of being a standalone song. The restlessness is fascinating.
Romance is Boring is an album that does exactly what you want it to. Lurking amongst the many and varied tunes are still fantastically individual vocals which stray from the weird of ‘the frequent public displays of sisterly affection/They left her feeling safe/Left him with an erection’ to the wonderful ‘We are just two atheists in lust’. There’s something unexpected around every corner and plenty of memorable tunes to fall in love with. Los Campesinos are on strong form and this is a record well worth the wait.
Romance is Boring is released on the 1st February 2010
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