Search - Los Campesinos :: Hold On Now Youngster

Album of the year? Probably. But why make it so hard on cons

mountain viewer | California | 10/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have no doubt that Los Campesinos! have put out the best music over the last 18 months or so, but to collect it all you have to buy not just this album but lots of other little EPs and singles and assorted nonsense. And getting the follow-up album is going to be a mess. Probably this just reflects the intersection of their falling-all-over-themselves exuberance and productivity with their amateur ethic. 'Cause it couldn't have anything to do with maximizing revenue. Right?



Ok, that out of the way, the music: Great. Seriously, I can't make sense of the negative reviews here that complain about suckiness or messiness or shoddiness or whatever except to say that it must reflect the fact that this music aims at both what I'm sufficiently non-youngsterish to still call the post-punk audience and what the youngsters would probably laugh at me for calling the "emo" audience or twee-pop or whatever. Given that this is probably the most polished music I've listened to in a long, long time, those reviews are clearly coming from a very different planet, and so I leave them to themselves.



But for those of you who think that post-punk smarts, sarcasm and enthusiasm work better when they engage the world than when they run away from it, who think that carving your revolutionary practice out of teen magazines reflects more organic intellectual effort than carving it out of the Guardian or Mother Jones (not that they don't read those too), and especially for those of you who think the ramshackle ethos works best when it's the product of a large, anarchic collective pulling in seven directions at once rather than the default mode of the lazy and feckless, then this is the music you've been waiting for.



Sure they're not as smart as they want to be, or even think they are. Their fusion of scenesterism and genuine love of what they do falls apart a few times. And their avowed hopelessness isn't very convincing coming from white, over-educated, attractive kids who know too much to take their sincerity at face value. In fact their self-conscious silliness can get cloying. But no one is playing around with these contradictions---which are crucial ones---more effectively and enjoyably than they are. Every time they hit that first long organ note in "My Year in Lists" (go listen to the video on Y*uT*be) or let their limbs flail when they dance, I want to sell myself to them for life. Good thing they haven't sold enough records yet to be able to afford me.



So, yeah, best of the year. Get it. And track down "International Tweexcore", the Heavenly cover, and "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" as well."

Stellar debut reworks the very best elements of a dozen diff

Matthew Stephen Hunziker | Madison, WI USA | 10/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ordinarily, anything as catchy as "Hold on Now, Youngster" should wear out its welcome after listening to it a dozen times in a week, but under Los Campesinos!' fuzzy hooks (which are found in abundance) there are clever turns of phrase, poignanly descriptive lyrics and an infectious amount of enthusiasm to uncover with repeat listens.



The band's packed lineup and group chants suggest Architecture in Helsinki's "In Case We Die", but the hyper-specificity and near pathological levels of energy are what's so fun about poring through Art Brut lyrics. Single "You! Me! Dancing!" has the album's biggest guitar hook (and a closing section that hilariously references Rousseau) but even better is "This is how you spell 'HAHAHA, we've destroyed the hopes and dreams of a generation of faux-romantics.'" It's one of 2008's very best songs on an album that seems likely to weigh in as one of the year's best records."

Unpolished and Cluttered? That's why I like it!

George a Pletz | Central PA, USA | 07/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I live slightly off the radar so I have not been overtaken by indie media overload with this stuff. So what can I say? Influences? Bis, Pavement, Belle and Sebastian, and any number of poppy punk bands before that meant Green Day. Sprawling, sloppy, and inventive in a very precise way. They throw it all at the wall and it sticks. The lyrics are very smart, the mood infectious, and the girl/boy vocal interplay keeps things alive. This stuff lifts you up with its rough and sweet riffs, feeds your arty side with odd instrumental touches and makes you chuckle with its smart turns of phrase and witty asides. I may be outside the demographic and it runs a little long, I like this easily over anything I hear on the radio. So I'm in...bring on more! One of my favorites of 08!"