Los Campesinos! / Hello Sadness
Album: Hello Sadness   Collection:General
Artist:Los Campesinos!   Added:Dec 2011
Label:Arts & Crafts  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2012-01-01 Pull Date: 2012-03-04
Week Ending: Feb 19 Feb 12 Feb 5 Jan 29 Jan 22 Jan 15 Jan 8
Airplays: 1 3 1 5 1 3 2

Recent Airplay
1. Oct 22, 2018: regular school
By Your Hand
4. Sep 20, 2018: regular school / summer skool
By Your Hand
2. Oct 11, 2018: regular school
By Your Hand
5. Sep 10, 2018: regular school / summer skool
The Black Bird, The Dark Slope
3. Oct 08, 2018: regular school
By Your Hand
6. Aug 30, 2018: regular school / summer skool
By Your Hand, Songs About Your Girlfriend

Album Review
Trent Kay
Reviewed 2011-12-31
Fourth release from an emo-core seven-piece that layers the bashy and the pretty. (They're Welsh, obviously.) Not as abrasive as Cymbals or Cursive, but in equal angry-angsty territory, plus synths, strings, and ridiculously cute harmonies. Zany indie tropes and resolutely un-pretty vox a la Architecture in Helsinki. Lots of group singing. Can dip into Arcade Fire-ish opulence. Graphic, maybe-ironic, oft wince-inducing TMI-award lyrics. When I try to describe this band to people, it's always, "Like Dashboard, but they think it's hilarious that they sound like Dashboard. Oh also they might be serious. Um also they might be dangerous." I don't know, if a Dead Baby Joke falls in a forest? It's a toss-up: These guys, if intoxicated, would either stab you to death with cuticle scissors or cry to you bitterly about their ex-girlfriends for eight straight hours.

I had to paste this from Pitchfork: On "Baby, I Got the Death Rattle" he gets frostbite from scribbling dicks in the snow for every girl that wouldn't sleep with him before watching a halo slip from the top of his lover's head and, presumably, decapitate her. Also he burns the skin off his hands with a Zippo and an aerosol before going to a palm-reader. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!?!

RIYL: Architecture In Helsinki, Cursive, Dashboard Confessional (don't hate!), The Paper Chase, Maximo Park

try: 1, 3, 2
FCC: 5, 9

*1. (4:07) hilarious bright indie pop that gets everything right. prosaic lyrics, choppy delivery, beamy synth. adorable ensemble vox chorus, slow handclaps. things seem to be going well ("we were kissing for hours with her hands in my trousers") until his date pukes on him. the end vamp ("eyes of doe and thighs of stallion") sounds like a brick joke.
*2. (3:19) classic jagged guitar, casual hooky riff. nice catch and release dynamics. fun zany brit-addled pop, pretty sky-high harmonies. keys, bells, cymbals.
*3. (4:13) ~10 sec ambient intro. breaks into dramatic and bursting indie pop. pushy driving beat starts light, then makes the whole thing move. galloping woodblocks/handdrums. the "ooh ooh" calls in the last minute sort of make the song for me. "this dripping from my broken heart is never running dry."
4. (4:22) ~3 sec to start. shuffly jangle guitar. 'ah' harmonies, handclaps. sounds like the go-betweens. innocuous enough until the cute as hell chorus melody kicks in. wish the rest of the song sounded like it.
5. (5:04) FCC "fuck" mid-slow, dragging spare percussion. downtempo and angsty. very cool trade-off vox, washy harmony-laden chorus. violins. "you can lead a horse to water, but it won't drown itself."
6. (2:20) ~8 sec to sound. drumless, brief lament. circular soft guitar. overlapping vox. melancholy and mellow. smiths-ish.
7. (3:56) delicate hi-hat, jagged guitar. fastish. electric two-notes. cool interplay with airy female harmonies. bashy and bright.
8. (4:11) quiet effectsy start. thin plinking, slow electric guitar. vox in at :56. sweet and dreamy. builds. strings, etc. simple, sincere.
9. (4:13) FCC "fuck" ~18 sec to start. a three act track. downtempo tocking clang, then achey reverby vox, minor electric, swaying strings. relentlessly depressing and affecting. dicks, snow, haloes, etc. picks up into an unexpectedly bright pop finale with ensemble singing. this is the best track on the record.
10. (4:20) soft start, early fade. low reed riff, exposed vox, slow, painfully wailing twang. spare and draggy. something about "shadows, doom and sorrow" and listening to his girlfriend peeing through the wall. dude.

Track Listing
1. By Your Hand   6. Hate For The Island
2. Songs About Your Girlfriend   7. The Black Bird, The Dark Slope
3. Hello Sadness   8. To Tundra
4. Life Is A Long Time   9. Baby I Got The Death Rattle
5. Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)   10. Light Leaves, Dark Sees Pt. Ii