POP
Grade: 3.5 stars Los Campesinos' second album is a testament to ambition. That is, the septet from Wales has aimed to knock each song out of the ballpark with a fury not often seen in pop music.
They succeed, which is not just fortunate for your ears, but your feet and perhaps even your indie rock cred if you loved them when they were unknown.
"We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" is a frenzied affair. But it's also a brilliant one. Songs explode with fantastic guitar melodies buoyed by keyboards galore. Like previous efforts, it feels like baroque punk — as dense as it is chaotic.
The album bursts open with "Ways to Make It Through the Wall" — a perfect guitar pop song if ever there was one, that just builds and builds into whirl.
"Miserabilia" features a great back-and-forth between Gareth, with his nasally U.K. screed, and Aleksandra, with her sweet, refined voice. (I use only their first names because all seven members go by the last name Campesinos — a bit of a hackneyed novelty, but it doesn't affect the music.)
The band has always written devastating lyrics, and the title track is no different. It opens with "By the light of the LED display of a VCR recorder/You kiss my neck, I whisper in your ear, 'This is my downfall.' "
The album stumbles a few times with a needless instrumental track and "The End of the Asterisk," whose sound is too muddled even though it has enough energy to power my apartment for a few years.
"We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" is an even more amazing achievement considering this is Los Campesinos' second album this year. If this is their artistic pinnacle, they have already had an excellent career.
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© Copyright 2008, The Bergen Record
