Los Campesinos! – Hold on Now, Youngster… Review
I’ll be honest here, I decided to pick this album up after reading a Pitchfork review (take this as an apology for bashing them whether here or on forums) and finding out they were signed to Toronto-label Arts & Crafts. Los Campesinos! are a recently (2006 seems recent) formed band out of Cardiff, Wales. I had no experience with them before though some blogs covered their EPs but never heard about them myself. I first listened to the track “Death To Los Campesinos!” as a taste test to see if I should pursue more information. I enjoyed their brand of loud over the top pop.
Hold on Now, Youngster…was released on February 25 overseas and as a digital release. It officially releases on April 1 so I’m not quite sure if it’s kosher for me to post some mp3s…but I’ll take my chances for now as this album is awesome.
The first few times I played this, I didn’t really get into too many songs but the ones I liked, I liked A LOT. In a way it felt like it was a brand of silly/messy pop that was beautifully put together. Almost everything I can say is great or works well when analyzing all the pieces. A lot of the songs include long instrumental intros showing off that they can pull off some post-rock or if they stuck to simplicity you would still like them. This is especially the case on “2007, The Year Punk Rock Broke (My Heart)”. The track is a very simple song yet very soft. It became an early favorite until I took some time to look deeper at all the tracks.
Musically or instrumentally you’re getting something of Arcade Fire-esque in my opinion but louder with guitar solos in the forefront and including a perfect addition of violins while featuring the glockenspiel quite extensively. I kept thinking of the Arcade Fire for some reason after listening to the record for the first time.
Vocally, I can understand people hating on the male vocals (Gareth’s) as they are very untrained and if I were nitpicking I could knock his accent a bit. However, I think it adds to it all the elements and allows the vocals to stand out rather then allowing the music to fully take over. Besides I hate too much of the clean, stereotypically “good” vocals, I want something different! If all else fails with Gareth’s vocals you can enjoy Aleksandra’s sexy female vocals which adds perfectly to most songs where it needs a lift.
I had sheer enjoyment going through the lyrics on this album as there are many times where it’s inaudible but deciphering the meaning isn’t always the easiest but I easily picked out a few lines I liked. At first I thought the songs sounded childish and most of them just sounded fun and playful but damn I was wrong.
I had an internal argument with myself with how well I should rate this album, at first it was a 4.5 out of 5, then it became 4.75 and after listening to the album even more, I must say it’ll be one of the top albums of the year for me. It’s a 5 out of 5, my third one this year (given to Vampire Weekend and Thao With The Get Down Stay Down). Other people and critics have been high on this as well, how could they not? Except for NME that didn’t like the track to track transition but fuck em’ (could be butt fuck ‘em if that’s your thing).
Here are my favorite tracks from the album (though I love every track to be honest):
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks by Los Campesinos!
You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos!
Death To Los Campesinos! by Los Campesinos!
Buy this album from Insound/CD Universe/Amazon
Hi man, yeh they ain’t to bad, no sure they stand up next to Arcade Fire mind.
Are they playing any of the big festivals this year? wouldn’y mind seeing them live!
fOgLe