Los Campesinos! Still Annoyed and Articulate

Los Campesinos! release their third album, Romance is Boring. In fact it may be, but this album is not. The six-piece indie-pop band from Wales proves that it’s been growing up, and not in the bad “mom jeans way,” but in the “starting to master their talent way.” The production value this time around is noticeably pumped up making the slightly off-kilter sound easier to trust. Do not fret, the 15-track album still has Los Campesinos! fingerprints smudged all over. It is still stuffed to the brim with whiney back-alley-honesty through Gareth Campesinos! incredibly, wordy, english-major-gone-awol lyrics. Lyrics that live only to ponder, lousy sex, drinking induced vomiting, corpses, godlessness and soccer. Only a writer like Gareth could take themes that tend to induce images of, sweaty, half drunk 20-somethings, scratching their balls and spin it into beautifully unpredictable sentences that make you want to study their structure.

Some songs are melodic and sing-a-long approved like, “The Sea is a Good Place to Think About the Future.” Others like, “Medias Res,” are glorious noise taking you out of your comfort zone and forcing you to contemplate such things as death and vomit from vodka.

If you like feeling smart and well read while rocking the hell out to your indie-pop picks, then adding Romance is Boring to the line-up is a must.