Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

As album titles go, ‘Hello Sadness’ is a self-depreciating one, more angsty and life despising than a teenager before midday. Normally these kinds of associations might trigger the odd eye-roll and perhaps even mild fear for ones own mental sanity. After all, for every Laura Marling break-up album, we’ve heard 10 collections of indulgent drivel.

Not so fast there - remember, the band in question is Los Campesinos!, who happen to pull off sugar coated misery very well. Gareth has a penchant for writing lyrics that are poetic, albeit a little smutty at times. Whether he’s complaining about a lack of attention being paid to his manly parts or exploring the apparently numerous ways to make it through the wall, our Gareth is always intelligent and entertaining in his approach. On ‘Hello Sadness’ we can certainly expect more of the same playfully cryptic wordplay that made ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ so special. This is a definitely a more mature album though, packed with self-awareness and emotion. In other words; Los Campesinos! appear to have ditched the cherryade in favour of stronger stuff.

Sometimes maturity can be a killer for bands that start life as a little bit twee, and Hello Sadness faces the danger of becoming too heavy. Luckily this threat is sidestepped with ease, and musically this album is a giant energetic hub of hyperactivity. Leaping from sugary melodies to orchestral interludes faster than Usain Bolt, the success lies in the extremely pleasing balance of light and shade. Even when Gareth is singing about usually depressing subjects like burning the palm of his hand, he’s backed up by cheerfully clinking piano or fairground bleeps, the familiar sound of Kim’s backing vocals repeating his sinister statements with the joyful enthusiasm of a Sunday School teacher.

‘Hello Sadness’ is a great album, because it finds a happy medium between coming of age and just being grumpy old men. You get the impression that it’s all a little tongue in cheek, with just enough of the youthful defiance that dominated the band’s earlier albums. The naming of this album - like previous effort ‘Romance Is Boring’- is intentionally downbeat, deliberately indulgent, playing with misery rather than wallowing in it. This might be a break-up album, but with a talent for producing such consistently enjoyable albums, Gareth Loscamp really has nothing to worry about because the girls will be queuing round the block to look after him.