by Michael
Michael’s potentially controversial opinion #137: American music currently destroys British music in as good as every way imaginable. Quite the surprise given that music’s most obvious modern leading light is British. Anyway, enough about Liam Gallagher. Psych. Another notable exception to the rule is indie pop septet Los Campesinos! and their haywire brand of sugary guitar craziness. Since their debut album “Hold On Now, Youngster…” they have blossomed into something even better, but the signs were certainly good back then.
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Michael’s potentially controversial opinion #137: American music currently destroys British music in as good as every way imaginable. Quite the surprise given that music’s most obvious modern leading light is British. Anyway, enough about Liam Gallagher. Psych. Another notable exception to the rule is indie pop septet Los Campesinos! and their haywire brand of sugary guitar craziness. Since their debut album “Hold On Now, Youngster…” they have blossomed into something even better, but the signs were certainly good back then.
A description of Los Campesinos! could never be complete without a reflection on the true highlight of the whole package, namely Gareth’s lyrics, but before that there is some oft overlooked music to consider. While their sound thrives in mirroring the high energy of the group by packing as much into the frame as is possible, your usual rock instruments complimented by quite the array of glockenspiel, violin, keyboard and who knows what else, it is the riffs that are central to the record. They pack a punch by virtue of some highly evident classic rock chops, and it’s tough to deny that the album wouldn’t be half the treat if groovy twee anthems like “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” and the indie disco centerpiece of “You! Me! Dancing,” the latter albeit with a maddeningly steady post-rocky build-up, weren’t lent their danceability by some monstrous riffs that feel peculiarly huge for such an awkwardly indie album bursting through the aural maelstrom.
So, onto the lyrics. Gareth Campesinos! speaks for one hell of a lot of British 20-somethings on this record, and given that it isn’t until recent stunner “Romance Is Boring” that he is finally consumed alive by self-doubt, self-hatred and an additional more outward display of emotional ferocity, this certainly feels comparatively as upbeat and bubbly as the music surrounding it. Nonetheless, it’s a K Records, ATP and stationery fetish-referencing bonanza with a truthfulness to far outweigh any unpredictability, with lyrics about grammar Nazism and the uselessness of boys with guitars being the more obvious of pot-shots for someone whose cynicism makes Stephen Malkmus sounds utterly cryptic, but with said lyrics sounding far easier to get behind than they do on message forums. Gareth offers a minor trend-hopping masterclass in burning down every annoyance in your path, to the extent that I feel his on-record persona looking over me as I type. It’s enough to make you sweat, but it’s an admirable performance from one of the most relatable lyricists I’ve heard in years.
“Hold On Now, Youngster…” represented the introduction to the UK scene, a band that I and many others could finally get behind and obsess over after the false dawn of Arctic Monkeys, and its young, wide-eyed, impossibly cool but agonizingly self-aware promise has been justified by subsequent releases. The truth is that my opinions really aren’t that controversial; Britain has lagged hugely in the post-Strokes guitar music environment, but Los Campesinos! prove as good an example as ever that British eccentricity will go a long way in the right hands. Saviors of music they ain’t, but a soundtrack for life they will be.
by Michael
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