There are some acts that are just so themselves, and that’s exactly what you want them to be. That usually means they’ll never play stadiums, and might not be able to keep going, but you so hope they will. It also usually means they’re an acquired taste, but Los Campesinos! is for everyone. Your favorite twee aughts act is exuberantly still Los Camp (with an exclamation point), even as everything else is All Hell.
Indeed, there are a few hallmarks on Hell that are super-Campesinos, to the point where it’s almost a wink to their longtime fans, such as having three tracks that start with roman numerals, or that the first one’s title includes “A Bite Mark in the Shape of the Sunflower State”, clearly referencing classic track “A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State”. “Holy Smoke (2005)” has that great sarcastic, but also heartfelt, sound that LC have been delivering since 2005, and its followed by the exuberant LC injury “A Psychic Wound”. Singer Gareth Campesinos still has his way with words, such as, “Give us our daily dread” on “The Order of the Seasons”. If not every All Hell track is as instantly memorable, well, that was the case with Los Campesinos! back in the day, too.
So much has changed, so fast (just look at politics on either side of the pond this July…), that we need acts who are who they are, and who do what they do so well. We need Los Campesinos!
