Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring (Album)

In the two years since their debut, Los Campesinos! have come to embody all that is good about British guitar bands. This means that the arrival of their third (yes, the last one does count) long player in February is a big deal. But does Romance is Boring live up to expectations? Well, let’s have a listen, posting knee-jerk track by track reactions as we go, shall we?

1 ‘In Medias Res’ - A really ambitious start. Contains a wonderfully creepy mid-section and a first dalliance with brass. A real statement of intent and indication of how much they’ve grown.

2 ‘There are Listed Buildings’ - … but they haven’t grown too much. This could sit perfectly on either of the two previous records with its ‘ba ba ba’s and boundless exuberance.

3 ‘Romance is Boring’ - Perhaps as direct as they’ve ever been, this is straight-up ballsy rock with what might prove to be the biggest, boldest chorus of 2010. This is all going very well so far.

4 ‘We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2)’ - Feels like an extension of that BSS-style texture that started to emerge on the last record. So much going on under the surface. Still very LC! though with those shouty gang vocals and lyrics (“Every girl I ever kissed / I was thinking of a pro footballer”)

5 ‘Plan A’ - In which Los Campesinos! pay homage to their fuzz-rock heroes. Aggressive and abrasive, but in an endearingly cuddly way.

6 ‘200-102’ - A little breathing space of weird creaky acoustic guitar. Gives us all a chance to calm down after all that shouting.

7 ‘Straight in at 101’ - More classic LC!, all soundbites and urgency: “I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock / Feels like the build-up takes forever but you never touch my cock”. Another instant, huge pop song.

8 ‘Who Fell Asleep In’ - God, this is incredible, a killer torch song. It just swells and swells. It’s woozy, fuzzy-headed and lovelorn as can be. Another indication of exactly what this band have always been capable of. The best so far.

9 ‘I Warned You - Do Not Make an Enemy of Me’ - But how do you follow that? Well, they keep it nice and simple, another catchy guitar-line and a WAB,WAD-style stomper.

10 ‘Heart-Swells / 100-1’ - Continues exactly where its predecessor left off on the previous record, all echoey, windswept and forlorn.

11 ‘I Just Signed, I Just Sighed, Just So You Know’ - More of this heavily-layered, complex production that should give the songs much more longevity. The recording of the songs is becoming as much of a star as the tunes themselves.

12 ‘A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me to Charlotte’ - Organ and more brass is splashed across the song, and it seems to make perfect sense. Right at the end Gareth tries some singing to befit the sheer hugeness of the song, and he just about pulls it off.

13 ‘The Sea is a Good Place to Think About the Future’ - We’re cheating a bit here, because this song’s already very famililar. It’s an incredible achievement, though, taking you on a rollercoaster of emotions in less than five minutes, from sadness to serenity to euphoria and back.

14 ‘This is a Flag. There is No Wind’ - One of three or four instantly catchy songs. Playful, crunchy guitars and a sky-scraping party chorus. The sound of a band at the peak of their powers.

15 ‘Coda: A Burn in the Shape of the Sooner State’ - Curiously down-beat closer. A lot of Parenthetical Girls influence here with its layer upon layer of percussive noise and pain-laced vocals which make ‘I can’t believe I chose the mountains every time you chose the sea’ sound like the saddest sentiment imaginable.

…So even on first listen this is already shaping up to be a massive album. Everything good about the band has been amplified and they’ve unleashed a gaggle of impressive new tricks. The way they’ve developed in the last three years or so is staggering. Los Campesinos! really don’t seem able to put a foot wrong at the moment.

Muse - The Resistance (Album)

I've always fancied doing one of those live reaction pieces but I've never got round to it. The new Muse record seems as good a place as any to start, given the amount of reaction flying around to it.

1 - Uprising - Well this is okay in a Not-that-Musey-but-still-pompous-as-fuck kind of way. Not keen on those high pitch 'Come on'! bits. This isn't a Corsa ad lads.

2 - Resistance - God, Bellamy's lyrics are terrible sometimes. This sounds a bit like something off the terrible last Cooper Temple Clause record. Catchy, but deep down you know it's not very good.

3 - Undisclosed Desires - What's this plinky-plonky faux-Timbaland backing going on? Maybe I'm being harsh, but this ain't going well.

4 - United States of Eurasia- Ah, here comes that Queen song. I seem to really be warming to this. Totally overblown of course, but wonderfully so. Everything that I love about Muse. What a fantastic pianist Bellamy is too.

5- Guiding Light - Lovely throbby bass. This is definitely that moment on a Muse album which I don't particularly like at first because it's a bit overbearing but grow to love in the end. See Endlessly, Showbiz and Micro Cuts for further examples.

6 - Unnatural Selection - Ooh, nice funereal organ. This could end up being good. Oh God, that guitar's a bit hyper-Kaiser Chiefs at first though. Before it becomes like the New Born solo, that is. Confusing stuff. All told, a bit throwaway in the end, a la The Small Print. It gets better towards the end with that racing guitar bit. I bet this would be a bitch to play on Guitar Hero.

7 - MK Ultra - Nice guitar line, this. The ooooh, ooooh bits are good. This is about the closest thing I've heard to anything on Absolution on here so far. Pretty good actually. This might end up being one of my favourites. There's no need to write a song about Milton Keynes though, no matter how zany you are.

8 - I Belong to You - Christ, is this the intro from a Stevie Wonder b-side? I'm not keen on this cod-funk thing they seem to have discovered. The only bit with any kind of merit in this is that mournful piano in the middle. It all just feels like it's building up to a point it never really ever gets to. A bit like the album as a whole, actually. And is that a fucking clarinet solo?! Lads, you're too geeky to be funny, so leave it at the door.

9 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 - I'm excited about this symphony piece. It's almost as though this is where they stop pissing about and start the album properly. This part is stunning, especially the first couple of minutes before the vocals. Really brooding and ominous.

10 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 - Nice classic piano again and that melancholic, low key vocal he hasn't done nearly enough of on this album. These last couple of tracks might be saving the album. I was worried that the guitar which comes in about two minutes in would make it all a bit tacky, but it actually fits in quite nicely with those gorgeous searing strings.

11 - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 - This piano and strings intro might be the most beautiful piece of music Muse have done yet. In fact, fuck it, it's not just the intro, it's the whole piece. It just swells and swells. I'm so conflicted. Is this really the same album as I Belong to You? What a great way to end an album.

So all told, The Resistance is a fucking strange experience. It houses some absolutely unbearable moments, mainly the attempts at eclecticism. I'm all for experimentation, but you'd think that after five albums someone as gifted as Matt (as well as Dom and Chris) would know what they can and can't get away with. The three-part symphony at the end salvages something, saving the album from being a total disaster, but it's a hard record to love.