Los Campesinos! - Songs About Your Girlfriend

‘It seems like such a ludicrous thing to say, but I think Drake and I write about similar things a lot of the time.’ So says Gareth Campesinos! in a recent interview in support of his band’s third/fourth album (depending on who you ask), ‘Hello Sadness’.

Standing out on an album of no-holds barred emo-tatsic break-up songs to end all break-up songs, ‘Songs About Your Girlfriend’ is the single example of bonafide rap-style bravado. For the most part. ‘You do not like us cos your girlfriend likely does,” Gareth sings in his newly-discovered dulcit tones, “And all your friends agree on her soft spot for me’. Somewhat undercut by the chorus, ‘Songs I’ve written about your girlfriend / Are just palms of spite since it came to an end.’

Compared to the band’s everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink approach to indie rock on previous releases, ‘Songs About Your Girlfriend’ is almost an exercise in economy for Los Camp! The twin guitars audibly growl at each other throughout, but remain fairly restrained, the band’s trademark/albatross (take your pick) glockenspiel brings a little light to the seediness rather subtly, and then of course the band’s lyrical obsessions (inherited from Paul Heaton) with the grotesque, sex, and footie are encapsulated within the lines ‘She stubbed her home club’s crest on me with cigarrettes / A swift that matched the bird upon her football shirt’.

Brevity, sing-a-long choruses, proper singing… it’s like the weird, heart-on-sleeve indie-rock kids are making pop songs.

In a way.