Los Campesinos! - ‘We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2)’
You might be aware of my anticipation surrounding the new Los Campesinos! record. This excitement culminated a couple days ago when I finally threw in the towel and gave it a spin. Then another. Then a few more. Team Campesinos! had said themselves, some time ago now, that this was their best effort yet - a claim that turned out to be an understatement, more than anything.
A far cry from ‘it’s you, it’s me, and it’s dancing’, opener In Media Res puts the marker down for the rest of the record with its painfully blunt outlook on the one that got away. This tone temporarily takes a step back during ‘There Are Listed Buildings’, only for so long, though. ‘Straight In At 101’ is a four minute throwback to ‘Hold On Now, Youngster’. Equally essential, yet it’s the down-tempo areas which really set this apart from the LC! of old.
The record is only slightly let down by a couple tracks which tend to wash over (see the title track), but let’s remember how high they’ve already set the bar. Elsewhere, ‘The Sea Is a Good Place To Think About The Future’ remains a song which borders on remembering-exactly-where-you-were-the-first-time-you-heard-it territory, whilst the band’s cries of ‘I can’t believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea’ are a fitting closer.
