Sugar Buzz Band Crashes Thanks To Maturity & Heartbreak

When people first talked about Los Campesinos!, the Cardiff-based septet, they often brought up their child-like energy (we’re guilty). But underneath their early singles and debut full-length Hold On Now, Youngster…, beneath the giddy and Crayola-colored homage to American indie rock, there was a darker almost militant edge to their pop tunes. They started the debut with a song called “Death to Los Campesinos,” and looked for solace in an “International TweeX Underground.” Even their breakthrough single, “You! Me! Dancing!,” could be misinterpreted as an order instead of a sugar high.

That darkness is on full display resting upon the band’s sophomore album, released only eight months after they gave us their proper debut of adrenaline. What started as an innocent Seattle studio sesh with John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney) to record some B-sides instead saw the band coming away with an albums worth of material: 10 songs more angry and cathartic than anything they’ve released thus far.

The catharsis is primarily directed at - what else - a relationship gone sour. Doesn’t sound too original, but what makes this collection so compelling is its sudden, off-the-cuff bitterness. For a band who usually paints in bright and broad strokes, it’s surprising to hear lead-singer Gareth screaming darker, more violent images; “He got his teeth fixed / I’m gonna break them”  he bellies on the title track. Elsewhere, on the wounded ballad “You’ll Need Those Fingers for Crossing,” the glockenspiel and violin weave together melodies of a bitter breakup kiss as Gareth and Aleksandra harmonize, “I’m sucking your last words from the back of your throat.”

It’s comforting to know that even when tackling a subject rich with clichés the band can maintain its hookiness and wit; I like now having a name for those post-breakup keepsake - “Miserabilia.”  Los Campesinos! have always been compared to Arcade Fire (comes with the territory when your band has strings and bells incorporated in almost every song) and I suspect that raw emotions of We are Beautiful, We are Doomed will only further validate that for some. But it will be interesting to see what the third album will sound like; their sophomore is either a step in a new direction for group or a much needed therapeutic detour.

Andrew Mitchell