Written by Daniel Rourke
With a career spanning over a decade, Los Campesinos! have
been prolific in releasing some of the most infectious and outrageously fun
tracks. Stacked head to toe with self-deprecating lyrics, sarcasm and cultural
references, Los Campesinos! have become a staple within the indie pop scene.
The announcement of the band’s sixth studio album 'Sick
Scenes' was met with the release of lead single I Broke Up In Amarante. Packed with a huge
chorus, the track tells the tale of a booze filled breakdown that’s
full to the brim with football references and nods to the European
Championships.
If I Broke Up In Amarante does anything, it depicts just how
good Los Campesinos! are at writing a hook. It’s a trait that is also found in
tongue in cheek album opener, Renato Dall’Are (2008) as Italia 90 references go
toe-to-toe with self-deprecation to create one of the stand out tracks on the
album both lyrically and musically.
As 'Sick Scenes' progresses A Slow, Slow Death and The Fall
From Home see a decline in pace, as the latter sees the band take a hauntingly
beautiful look at moving away from your hometown: “Left your hometown for
something new // don’t be surprised now it’s leaving you.”
Musically Sick Scenes doesn't do anything drastically different
from previous Los Campesinos! release, although it does have its moments of
diversity. 5 Flucloxacillin picks the pace back up a little, as Gareth
Campesinos! tells the tale of mental health and how “OAPs” tend to criticise
millennial coping mechanism.
From there on out the record carries on in a similar vein of
mixed pace, football references and constant hooks. It isn’t until Got
Stendhal’s appearance that the listener is treated to a change in sound as the
bridge is wrapped in a musical elements that wouldn’t be out of place on The
1975’s sophomore release ‘I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful,
yet so unaware of it’.
'Sick Scenes' proves to be a return to form for the band who
openly mock their 2008 heyday. Whilst there’s nothing
particularly new about the record, there are enough hooks and an abundance of
clever lyrical moments that make up for that.