While back in May we learned that Welsh indie rockers Los Campesinos! had just wrapped up recording their fourth album in Spain, not much was known about the set at the time. Thankfully, the band have now detailed the disc, and it sounds as if it's a bit of a downer.
The group's next album is called Hello Sadness, and the title sets the mood perfectly. The song cycle "is an honest, bare-bones documentation of two people breaking up and trying not to break up in the process," according to the press release. Sounds heavy.
While the record is said to still retain the loud eccentricities of their past work, achieving "the perfect middle ground between punk rock, indie pop, Morrissey and the Fall's Mark E. Smith," the band have also apparently learned to scale back on this release, with many songs leaving the band some room to breathe. The group still tend to sing together at least once a song, but there is an airiness added by incidental sounds, from radio static to snatches of dialogue captured on a dictaphone by leader Gareth Campesinos.
Opener "By Your Hand" discusses death at the hands of a lover, while other tracks run the gamut of emotions. The record's heart-on-its-sleeve nature was bolstered even further when one of the band member's personal relationship crumbled, which in turn found all of the song cycle's lyrics rewritten last minute.
Touted as the most focused Los Campesinos! record to date, Hello Sadness comes out November 15 on Arts & Crafts.
A little extra sadness comes with news that violinist Harriet Campesinos has left the band to go to school. You can read a touching farewell scribed by the band here.
Hello Sadness:
1. "By Your Hand"
2. "Songs About Your Girlfriend"
3. "Hello Sadness"
4. "Life Is A Long Time"
5. "Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)"
6. "Hate For The Island"
7. "The Black Bird, The Dark Slope"
8. "To Tundra"
9. "Baby I Got The Death Rattle"
10. "Light Leaves, Dark Sees pt. II"
The group's next album is called Hello Sadness, and the title sets the mood perfectly. The song cycle "is an honest, bare-bones documentation of two people breaking up and trying not to break up in the process," according to the press release. Sounds heavy.
While the record is said to still retain the loud eccentricities of their past work, achieving "the perfect middle ground between punk rock, indie pop, Morrissey and the Fall's Mark E. Smith," the band have also apparently learned to scale back on this release, with many songs leaving the band some room to breathe. The group still tend to sing together at least once a song, but there is an airiness added by incidental sounds, from radio static to snatches of dialogue captured on a dictaphone by leader Gareth Campesinos.
Opener "By Your Hand" discusses death at the hands of a lover, while other tracks run the gamut of emotions. The record's heart-on-its-sleeve nature was bolstered even further when one of the band member's personal relationship crumbled, which in turn found all of the song cycle's lyrics rewritten last minute.
Touted as the most focused Los Campesinos! record to date, Hello Sadness comes out November 15 on Arts & Crafts.
A little extra sadness comes with news that violinist Harriet Campesinos has left the band to go to school. You can read a touching farewell scribed by the band here.
Hello Sadness:
1. "By Your Hand"
2. "Songs About Your Girlfriend"
3. "Hello Sadness"
4. "Life Is A Long Time"
5. "Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)"
6. "Hate For The Island"
7. "The Black Bird, The Dark Slope"
8. "To Tundra"
9. "Baby I Got The Death Rattle"
10. "Light Leaves, Dark Sees pt. II"
