Los Campesinos! - All Hell

As they close in on twenty years together, Los Campesinos! might never have had a record be as eagerly anticipated as ‘All Hell’, their seventh. In the seven years that have passed since their last full-length, ‘Sick Scenes’, the band’s fanbase has expanded to encompass not only the long-standing ultras, but a new generation, one too young to have formed a contemporaneous opinion on ‘Hold On Now, Youngster…’ but who helped fill London’s Troxy for the biggest show of the group’s career earlier this year. On ‘All Hell’, they ride the crest of this resurgence elegantly, leaning in both to some of their most formative inspirations and their new-found position as elder statespeople of British indie. 

After writers began to notice the undeniable influence of the genre on the band’s work to date, Los Campesinos! have taken to describing themselves, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, as ‘Britain’s first and only emo band’, and they’ve never worn it quite as avowedly on their sleeve as on this record, right from opener ‘The Coin-Op Guillotine’, with its melodic guitar lines and noisy, college rock breakdown. There are further such hints elsewhere – ‘The Order of the Seasons’ owes plenty to Sunny Day Real Estate. In the main, though, ‘All Hell’ is a refinement of the band’s established sound, characteristically boisterous in places and disarmingly gentle in others; soft, cooed backing vocals are part of the record’s calling card. Frontman Gareth Paisey retains his rapier wit, one that often belies the deeper pathos of songs like ‘Holy Smoke (2005)’, and his ability to work in a footballing metaphor remains unparalleled (“it’s been years since I played a high line”). Among the signature melancholy, there’s a sense of contentment to ‘All Hell’ – for a band once a byword for angst, that is a triumph in itself.