Los Campesinos! Issue #38

We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (Arts & Crafts)

By Lou Battaglia
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 12:00am

While the title of the new album by Los Campesinos! may come across as a pretentious attempt at ironic, existential commentary, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed actually provides insight into the inner dialectic that has fueled this band’s success over the past year. Their latest release finds the band once again oscillating between a boisterous, over-the-top pop posse and a sophisticated group of studiophiles, slyly masking their deft sonic intentions with a surface veneer of bombastic, adolescent anthems.

Take, for example, lead singer Gareth’s impassioned (almost embarrassing) croon on “It’s Never That Easy Though, Is It?” Here, he comes dangerously close to making even the least refined of listeners cringe by moaning: “I walked into the room to see my ex-girlfriend / Who, by the way, I’m still in love with / Sucking the face of some pretty boy.” On one level, this is teenage diary–style lyricism; yet on another, this seemingly juvenile song is bolstered by a complex, evocative arrangement that belies the lyrical motif.

While ears sympathetic to a subtler blend of sound may initially recoil at the band’s exuberance, those same ears (if their worth their salt) should be able to perceive that interesting inner dialectic that lurks beneath the band’s twee persona.

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