What a couple of years it’s been for Los Campesinos!, that hyper-productive Welsh (despite none of its members actually being from Wales) seven-piece. Two albums and an extended EP in two years. They don’t think of last October’s ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ as an album, and while it is a crucial piece in the puzzle, as it is the bridging point between ‘Hold On Now, Youngster’ and their forthcoming ‘Romance Is Boring’, it lacked that sense of real cohesion that second albums tend to have – though it was brilliant nonetheless.
One thing is clear to the listener even before RIB’s opener ‘In Medias Res’ finishes: They are not what they used to be. The only link between the debut and the follow-up is Gareth Campesinos!’ stunning lyrics, which have lost none of their wit or impact over the years, despite the fact that he’s now concerned with things quite far removed from dancing and K Records t-shirts; like ‘death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football and, ultimately, that there probably isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel’.
Heavy stuff indeed, and yes, the lyrics seem quite dark and unsettling at points, as on the opener, which finishes with the truly depressing, ‘If you were given the option of dying painlessly, peaceful at 45 / With a lover at your side, after a full and happy life / Is this something that would interest you…? / Would this interest you at all?‘ Coupled with Gareth’s desperate vocals, it makes for a truly heartwrenching finish.
As well as this, the band are in fine form musically. The melodies captured here are the best they’ve written to date; case in point, the title track and second single; the stunning ‘We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2)’. I think I might have already found my Song of the Year for 2010, as something truly spectacular is going to have to come along to beat what I think is Los Campesinos!‘ best song so far, ‘I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know’.
They are quite far from their roots now, and the band have just kept getting better. From their first EP ‘Sticking Fingers Into Sockets’ to now, it’s been a remarkable journey. An entire album of emotionally charged songs like ‘The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future’ really would have been too much to bear, for when the septet go for raw emotion here, as they do on album closer ‘Coda: A Burn Scar In The Shape Of The Sooner State’, the effect is devastating. The song, with its refrain of ‘I can’t believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea’, seems to encapsulate everything they have become.
The album’s definitely going to stand the test of time over the next twelve months, for a collection of songs this good is going to be difficult as hell to sweep aside. A real contender for 2010.
LC! Have created a really fine football-themed video to help introduce the replacement for Aleks who departed earlier this year. And at the end of the day, she’s going to fit right in…
I grabbed hold of her wrist and my hand closed from tip to tip
I said “you’ve taken the diet too far, you have got to let it slip”
But she’s not eating again, she’s not eating again, she’s not eating again, she’s not eating again.
I ask her to speak French and then I need her to translate, I get the feeling she makes the meaning more significant.
She was always far too pretty for me to believe in a single word she said, believe a word she said.
At fourteen her mother died in a routine operation, from allergic reaction to a general anesthetic. She spent the rest of her teens experimenting with prescriptions, in a futile attempt to know more than the doctors.
She said one day to leave her, sand up to her shoulders waiting for the tide
to drag her to the ocean, to another sea’s shore.
This thing hurts like hell,
but what did you expect?
And all you can hear is the sound of your own heart
And all you can feel is your lungs flood and the blood course
But oh I can see five hundred years dead set ahead of me
Five hundred behind,
A thousand years in perfect symmetry
Best known left wrist right finger, through all the Southern States, on every video games machine they call her triple A.
There were racists on the radio trying to give up smoking, the chat show host, he joked “you have to wait for the government program”.
You talk about your politics, and I wonder if you could be one of them, but you could never kiss a Tory boy without wanting to cut off your tongue again.
A good place to look to the future is when you are sat at the sea, with the salt up to your ankles and a view of the end of the pier, you may look down at your model’s feet and wish that you’d just float away, and the weather here is overcast and the sea is the same shade of grey, so the landscape before you looks just like the edge of the world, but to the left side and the right side, either way is a crazy golf course.
The sea is a good place to think of the future.
And all you can hear is the sound of your own heart
And all you can feel is your lungs flood and the blood course
But oh I can see five hundred years dead set ahead of me
Five hundred behind,
A thousand years in perfect symmetry
A thousand years no getting rid of me
A thousand years in perfect symmetry.
Although often shadowed out by happy-tappy xylophone and gleeful smiles, Los Campesinos! certainly have a sensitive side. ‘The Sea…’ commences with melancholic, plucked chords, the building of strings, akin to Why? more than anything and once it’s finished, you want to hear more of this “side”, but the only reference there is this very song. The forthcoming third LC! record might just expose more than we expected it to…
Gareth Campesinos!’s lyrics also have their moments, but here almost every single line can be plucked out and analysed on its own, chanted on its own, with its own meaning and context. And whilst this is without doubt a song about a girl, it’s by no means typical. Outstanding words include “You can never kiss a Tory boy without wanting to cut off your tongue” and “She was always way too pretty for me to believe a single word she said”. It tells a story unlike any other song in their catalogue, and bar the slightly odd-fitting chorus which sees the band retreating to their old, shout-quite-loud ways, is their most inventive work to date.
(JM)
MFM LIST: Debut album, 2nd album, 3rd album of the year words: Jamie Milton
Having listened to the new Howling Bells album for a few times, it’s got me thinking about all the psychological problems bands must face after their debut album becomes a success (don’t take that the wrong way, Howling Bells fans, it’s actually really good!). It’ll be interesting to see whether the likes of MGMT falter in the face of future success in a couple of years or so. Labels tend to pressure bands into maintaining success as quickly as possible and in a couple of acts, plenty more infact (it’d be unkind to name them) we’ve seen them trip over backwards in frustration and lack of ideas, only to say goodbye to what was a flourishing career. Below is a top three list of the best 2nd album by a band released this year, the best 3rd/4th/etc. release by a band this year as well as that sought prize of best debut of the year. This won’t necessarily correlate with our top 50 albums list, just, because. PS: This, we think, is our last 2008-reminiscent list. So ENJOY!
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The debut album prize is handed out to the band who’ve created the most out of nothing, who’ve changed the scope of music a little with their first release and perhaps the least likely to fail in making a future gem.
DEBUT ALBUM OF THE YEAR
#1 – Wild Beasts – Limbo, Panto I’ll hold you to the fact that ‘Limbo, Panto’ is the most ambitious debut album of the last year, hands down. Fuck Fuck Buttons. It’s astounding how a “pop” album can have its roots settled in such a never-ending range of elder acts and sounds. It’s amazing how despite having minor label pressures and a little bit of a reputation to live up to, the band managed to win us all over with such a shameless bout of gleeful joy; one so daring that it put off half of its potential fans.
#2 – Crystal Stilts – Alight of Night #3 – Fleet Foxes – S/T
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The best second album prize goes out to bands that merely topped their debut album, regardless of circumstance. We judge the efforts upon how much of a step forwards it was; both in musical merit and critical recognition.
SECOND ALBUM OF THE YEAR
#1 – Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight I’d bet a fair proportion of those suddenly warming to Frightened Rabbit at this time of end-of-year-lists galore aren’t aware that the oh-my-god-amazing ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ is their second album. Well, it is. It deals with themes that any low-key band about to break through usually talk about; drinking, sex and turmoil of everyday life. If the Scots take off hereafter it’ll be interesting to see if they can provide an equally enticing account of fame and fortune but any fine attempt to top this album will be some feat.
#2 – Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours #3 – Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
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This winners of this award have achieved it in similar circumstances to Frightened Rabbit in the way that they’ve topped any other efforts before. But in some senses we should be treating this award with higher regard than any of the others; the fact that an act can abolish any of their previous work (which in this case, was of such a high quality anyway) to create another piece which completely bettered others, is an oustanding action.
THIRD(plus) ALBUM OF THE YEAR
#1 – Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
It’s hard not to finish your hour together with ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’, with a few recultant-to-appear tears. This album, so stark in its nature, so broken in its themes, is a testimony to the restless attitude of Elbow, a band who’ve stuck by the music scene for twenty years, happily getting on with making good music. But something changed dramatically with the death of Guy Garvey’s father. And it’s the closing line of ‘Friends of Ours’, the heartbreaking notion of devotion and loyalty in “love you mate” that really opens up the waterworks. If any band deserve their success in 2008, it’s Elbow and it’ll be hard to find a substantial amount of people to argue that fact.
#2 – Portishead – Third #3 – Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
You know what it feels like. The second a song you adore kicks in you get them rare feeling of satisfaction and surprise combined. And you can pick these moments out from the rest of the song with ease. But there are a few that you can memorise more than others for their sheer oomph. Here are our (my) personal favourites. It’s probably quite a personal thing a feature like this so I’m just going to do this through my own thoughts, hopefully you can relate to these though…
—Los Campesinos – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed – 3:18— You can feel it coming from a mile off . The title track off LC’s! latest album treats us to a build-up of frustration courtesy of an anxious, restless Gareth Campesinos! gradually reaching his peak of anger with an angered cry of “I HOPE MY HEART GOES FIRST!”. The twee combination of chirpy xylophone/violin/keyboard then decides to kick in again and we’re back to normal.
—Why? – Simeon’s Dilemma – 2:37— In similar circumstances to our choice above, this song follows a symmetrical pattern through the line of “stalker’s my whole style and if I get caught, I’ll deny, deny, deny” and even though between this lyric there’s an awful lot going on, all you can remember is the last triumphant, twisted cry from Yoni Wolf at the very end of this ironically bright-sounding account of mind-loss.
—Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor – 0:01— As opposed to the choices above, we get our favourite part of the song from the moment we press play with this one. Hot Chip’s return was meant to be flawed, weighted down by the fame of ‘Over & Over’ but that wasn’t nearly the case. They’d ordered a whole new stock of dancefloor-fillers and we knew it from the second Alexis Taylor required us to “do it, do it, do it now”.
—Metronomy – My Heart Rate Rapid – 0:50— Joseph Mount may be portrayed as just another electro-indie name out of the hat but he’s actually quite the pioneer. How he manages to craft a dis-jointed mess into a classy pop tune with such ease is beyond me but it’s exemplified in the very finest manner with ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’. A sound of a woman in pleasure (or so we think…) is changing in pitch, the drums are equally indecisive but then it all suddenly comes together in similar vein to ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’ by the Knife, which was as much of a treat as this is when your slightly puzzled expression is given the order to change into a smile.
—Fleet Foxes – Sun It Rises – 0:48— Secluded from coca-cola, porn, drugs and whatever else isn’t on offer in the woods, Fleet Foxes’ tales of squirrels and building log fires, as romantic as they may be, aren’t the material of anything special (except in Midlake’s case maybe). But a stereotypical account of a red squirrel quickly transforms into the delightfully atmospheric opening harmony on a quite beautiful album. Rather lovely.
Other Snippets of Sensation:
SANTOGOLD – CREATOR -0:07- that famous “eeryrh-aa-aah-erurr” (we do a different transcribed adaptation of it each time, I swear!) clip. THESE NEW PURITANS (right) – INFINITY YTINIFNI – 1:00 – A few simple chants from Jack Burnett turn into a psychotic gadget-fest with a spellbinding chorus. TV ON THE RADIO – DANCING CHOOSE - 0:16 – A frenzied “rap?” from Adebimpe ends in a shamelssly pop hand-clap. Suddenly ‘Dear Science’ comes to life.
If you lovely people have any more to add then comment below with your personal favourites!
SONGS OF THE YEAR: PT.4 words: Tom Carstairs (ZOMBIE ATTACK) + Jamie Milton
The never-ending quest for MFM’s writers to gift with the finest individual glories of the last 12 months continues, despite the regular “Blog-post takedown” emails I’ve been receiving. My back up plan seems to be working so no more posts are being completely deleted anymore! Anyhow, below are the choices so far and if you scroll down that little more, you’ll be treated to the brand new 5 additions.
list so far: pt.1pt.2pt.3 Abe Vigoda – Dead City/ Waste Wilderness Cut Copy – Lights & Music The Dodos- Ashley Elbow – Lonliness of a Tower Crane Driver Elle Milano – Juliette’s Dead Erykah Badu – Twinkle Foals – Red Socks Pugie Friendly Fires – Paris Frightened Rabbit – My Backwards Walk Kings of Leon – Crawl Lil’ Wayne – A Milli Maps + Atlases – Artichokes Metronomy – My Heart Rate Rapid MGMT – Kids White Lies – Unfinished Business ——————————————————————————————-
Lykke Li – I’m Good I’m Gone (Youth Novels) TC: This is probably in my opinion the best pop song of 2008; it has everything from Lykke Li’s altered robotic voice, handclaps, a catchy piano hook and pop chorus amazing-ness are always a cause for celebration. Seductive, classy, perfect.
Outputmessage – Rise (Resurface EP) TC: My first foray in to an IDM album was clearly a good move this year, my first listening experience being of Bernard Farley, aka Outputmessage, composing this masterpiece of glitchy beats and intertwining synth lines. This song is so easy to get lost in, it’s a perfect slice of classy dance music and is what people should be buying instead of ‘Clubland/Ministry Of Sound Presents Bangin’ Ibiza Tunes 09’ or their counterparts.
Santogold – Creator (Santogold) JM: Authoritative in its demands for your attention with the “eyrr aa aaeyrr etc.” opening, ‘Creator’ may be offputting initially but when it decides to mix pulsing samples with Santogold’s clean, cool vocals, there’s no going back. It was the song that (at least in the UK) was most notably assoaciated with her music, the song most broadly loved, the song most deserving of its heaps of praise. PLAY:Santogold – Creator
Los Campesinos! – My Year In Lists (Hold On Now, Youngster) TC: Yes, they’re pretentious as anything, but they believe that they’re not and slag off pretentious bands in a vicious circle of coloured skinny jeans and cardigans. My Year In Lists was undoubtedly their most twee song on their debut (see line “Nothing says ‘I miss you’ quite like war poetry carved in your door with a Stanley knife” for proof of this) but it’s generally amazing, taking advantage of their male/female vocals and having a violinist all the while cramming it in to a sub 2 minute song.
Johnny Foreigner – Salt Pepper & Spinderella(Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light) TC: I don’t care that some people claim Alexei can’t sing because this song is a tune and a half. The synthesized drum beats running through most of the song are just there to lull you in to a false sense of security before all hell breaks loose (or as much as it can in an indie pop song) with a super sing-a-long that, let’s face it, makes me want to dance around the room every time. That’s the hallmark of a great song if ever I’ve heard one. PLAY: Johnny Foreigner – Salt, Peppa and Spinderella (Bloc Party Remix) (zshare)
All mp3s posted on Music Fan's Mic are posted after gaining the relevant permission.
Jamie Milton began Music Fan's Mic in 2006 as a means of publishing and collecting his reviews for other publications. Since then both Milton and Gareth O'Malley are co-running the blog and posting the best new music on a regular basis.
Boom-box-in':
Yeasayer - Odd Blood LP
Final Fantasy Heartland LP
Beach House - Teen Dream LP
These New Puritans - We Want War
Gigi - The Old Graveyard
jj - The xx Intro
Toro Y Moi - Causers of This LP
Liars - Sisterworld LP
Vampire Weekend - White Sky
Los Campesinos! - In Medias Res
MFM @ HYPEM
