Music Review

Ah, the assignment I've been waiting four months for. It was hard to pick just one album, but I have to give the runners up some credit. They are just as good as the album I chose, but I didn't really want to write about them. But you should still listen to them because they are really good. In no particular order: Coconut Records' "Nighttiming," Born Ruffians' "Say It," Belle and Sebastian's "Write About Love," Matt & Kim's "Sidewalks," and Girl Talk's "All Day." Right there, you have indie acoustic-ish, indie alt and kind of random, soft indie rock, overly catchy synth and lyrics, and a sweet mashup. But I digress. **If you don't want to read my full song commentary, read the following paragraph and the last paragraph. I won't take offense.**

When you first hear of the band Los Campesinos! they sound like a cool Mexican mariachi group (a campesino in English is a peasant). Alas, they are not. They're something even better. They are a wonderful indie pop group from the UK. The band formed in 2006 at Cardiff University in Wales, but none of the seven members are Welsh. Los Campesinos! is made up of Ellen, Gareth, Harriet, Neil, Tom, Ollie, Rob and Aleksandra. They are all known to perform with their real first names and then "Campesinos!" as their last names (like the Ramones, kind of). Sound good so far? It gets better. The name of their EP I'll be reviewing is called "Sticking Fingers Into Sockets." Everything is written by Gareth or Tom. Without further ado, the songs.

It opens with an extremely catchy yet kind of dark song (We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives), with a nice synth-y riff that walks down the scale and has some supporting drums, and even a glockenspiel played by Gareth. Gareth's lead vocals are really substantial, very British with a little harmony and chorus help from Aleksandra. The lyrics provide the subtle darkness with lines like "there's red stains all over the place/but they're not blood they're cherryade." This is my favorite song on the EP. "It Started With A Mixx" comes next and this one has the best lyrics: "trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop" and "it started with a mix/I think it always will." It has some really nice violin plucking, guitar and bass guitar. "Don't Tell Me to do The Math(s)" has some cool glockenspiel work and another catchy guitar riff, with bits of fitting violin sprinkled in between. "Frontwards" is alright, by this time on the EP, everything was beginning to feel a little repetitive. Aleksandra and Gareth have really good vocal chemistry. The fifth song "You! Me! Dancing!" is considered to be the band's hit, but it wasn't my favorite by a long shot. It starts off with slow guitar, then builds to muffled guitar and finally full guitar, glockenspiel and drums. Gareth's voice was alright in this, but true to the name, the song makes you want to dance. The last song "Clunk-Rewind-Clunk-Play-Clunk" is just to play the EP out, it sounds like a nice jam to be played at the end of the credits of a happy movie.

Well, if you've stuck with me this far, thanks. Los Campesinos! is a nice blend of indie pop, random instruments (like glockenspiel), delicate female vocals and solid male vocals. All in all, I give Sticking Fingers Into Sockets 7 out of 10. It was good albeit a tad repetitive-seeming. As I was listening (especially to "Frontwards" and "You! Me! Dancing!") I was reminded of another indie pop UK band with a slightly more grunge sound, Johnny Foreigner (Gareth actually did a song with them called Criminals- click here to listen to that). If you wanted to see them in the US, too bad. They were just here at the Metro, with Johnny Foreigner coincidentally. I'm bummed too. I hope this wasn't too long (actually it probably was). But I had a lot of fun writing it. Have an awesome break guys, and don't forget to listen to Los Campesinos!