A.V. Club: Best of the Decade

Artist Los Campesinos!

  • Los Campesinos!
Fresh-faced Welsh upstarts Los Campesinos! are effusive, charismatic, arrestingly smart—and ridiculously prolific. 2008 saw the release of the band’s debut, Hold On Now, Youngster…, and the follow-up We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, two albums that traffic in relentless neon pop (with chords so bright and repetitive they border on terrifying) and the kind of fierce lyrics that transform sing-along chants into social critique. The songs charge out fast, twinkling with glockenspiels and friendly-sounding electric guitars, all in a shameless sprawl of ecstatic and/or desperate words. Sure, it comes on a little strong for some tastes, but endure it for a few listens, and it’s hard to deny how well lead singer Gareth Campesinos and bandmates put together these supposedly chaotic songs.
 

Updated 03/27/2009

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