Los Campesinos! — Romance Is Boring

There's a song title on Romance Is Boring that suitably sums up the way I felt after listening to this latest Los Campesinos! full-length: "I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know."

This is definitely the most eclectic release the British seven-piece have churned out. Opening track "In Medias Res" nearly stalls at its midpoint, morphing into a chugging Kraut-rock machine, then swelling into a horn explosion that's reminiscent of the end of Broken Social Scene's "7/4 (Shoreline)." It comes across like an overwrought exclamation of "We can make more than one type of song!"

We can't really blame Los Campesinos! for wanting to try something different — what band wants to make the same song over and over again besides AC/DC? We can, however, hold them accountable for the results, and there are a few experiments here that simply don't work.

Most noticeably, there's an unsuccessful attempt at Be Your Own Pet-like thrash on "Plan A" and a plain weird flute accompaniment throughout "I Warned You: Do Not Make An Enemy Of Me."

There are a number of great songs among these 15 — the sort of power pop that Los Campesinos! have handily proven their skill at — but it's only about half the amount that's needed to make up a great album. Still, their worst is better than a whole lot of bands' best.

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