September 13th, 2011 1:00am
Thinking Of You Fondly For Sure
It's funny how the sound of five years ago always seems to feel a bit uncomfortable. Los Campesinos! are an extremely mid-00s band, essentially the U.K. answer to hyper-articulate, sharp-tongued emo-pop bands like Fall Out Boy and Say Anything. This song, the first single from their upcoming fourth album, weds that style to the overblown everyone-singing-at-once style that's just as much Alphabeat as it is the Arcade Fire or Bright Eyes. It's all basically the same, though: Overwhelming romance filtered through defensive cynicism. That feeling may well be out of place in the current cultural climate, but I don't think that will stop a lot of people from caring about this sort of thing. It's just that it won't be cool again for some time. I get the sense that a lot of people are a little embarrassed by these sort of huge, heart-on-sleeve tunes and have, in large part, moved on to artists who are more cerebral, aggressive or stoned into total abstraction. I hope bands like this stick to their guns instead of folding and coming back together when it's their time to get on the reunion circuit.
2 Responses.
9/14/11 11:38 pm
<3 this track and band, aaf. that chorus is great!
9/17/11 1:42 pm
I listened to some Jonny Foreigner recently and understand your point about the mid-00s ‘uncomfortable’ sound. It’s pleasing though to read that you think these bands should stick to their guns – makes me think of Imperial Teen or Archers of Loaf, bands I discovered some way down the line (through your website).