- Music
- 25 Nov 11
Indie royalty aim to turn their frowns upside down for their fourth album.
The Los Campesinos! ship has been sailing in some rather choppy waters of late. Having survived three band members leaving/being fired and currently “of no fixed abode,” in many ways it’s a miracle that Hello Sadness was even made. Add that to the fact that lyricist and main singer Gareth was dealing with a pretty bad break-up (documented throughout the record) and you’d be forgiven for saying it was all a recipe for disaster. Yes readers, you’d be forgiven, but you’d also be wrong: as clichéd as it sounds, Hello Sadness really is a triumph over adversity.
Opening with the frenetic ‘By Your Hand,’ the album is emotive and engaging opus throughout. A pure joy to listen to ‘The Black Bird, The Dark Slope’ is as good as anything the seven-piece have ever put their name to , while the title-track and ‘Every Defeat Is A Divorce (Three Lions)’ (which, quite bizarrely, is about the English football team’s embarrassing exit from last year’s World Cup) sees the band debut a more mature sound. While some of the music on Hello Sadness might irk those who wish Los Campesinos! would return to the glockenspiel-led giddiness of their early albums, their sence of adventure ensures that they remain one of the most vital indie acts around.