Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring

A Welsh band that are zero percent Welsh, with pseudo-surnames which reek of ¡Forward Russia! styled branding and an album with more tracks than Network Rail; is Los Campesinos!’ third album destined for Marmite-like polarisation or does it somehow manage to produce something more diplomatic?

As any post-adolescent will know, growing up over the course of three years into a mature being is a bit overwhelming and you can either come out of the experience an improved and more refined character, or a confusing and unrecognisable alter-ego to your former persona. Since debut album Hold on Now, Youngster…, Los Campesinos! have been through much the same process themselves, and it’s proving difficult to decide what came out the other end.

On listening to Romance is Boring it slowly becomes evident that the music and lyrics have separated themselves and taken the different routes before rendezvousing again in the studio. The sound is a tidier and better produced product than before, but retains the ‘shout then relax’ dynamics that are a backbone characteristic of the band’s output. ‘There Are Listed Buildings’ is slightly off-beat but very much reminiscent of The Mae Shi in its glockenspiel backed introduction, whilst ‘Plan A’ takes its cue from The Strokes for a few seconds before completely detaching itself from them again and quite inappropriately adding a distorted vocal track about the financial rewards of a lucky Maltese immigrant football player. Or something like that.

When you dig deeper into Romance Is Boring’s soul, you’ll find little has really changed in essence- Gareth’s words are a steady constant which rarely lack honesty but won’t make him a candidate for the next Poet Laureate anytime soon. The sheer size of the album provides a short lives source of excitement and anticipation before you grow tired and limit future listenings to a smaller selection of tracks.

Given the seven minds it took to create this album you might end up wishing they’d at least agreed on something slightly more conceptual instead of compiling a disc full of musical energy; then again, if you liked what Los Campesinos! have done in the past you’ll no doubt be accustomed to and satisfied by this blasé approach. Romance Is Boring is a fun and endearing result of a band that’s kept its focus throughout its rise to fame and we’re really, really hoping that album number four will find them all working from the same page.

7/10