Raw-nerved, bare-souled and sharp enough to draw blood with those glockenspiels, Los Campesinos! were one of the keepers of the mid-2000s indie glut. As they enter their uncertain 30s, the former tweecore enfants terribles continue to grow up disgracefully, balancing a warmer, mature sound with a still-angry energy. “Not right to call this old age, but it certainly ain’t youth,” admits Gareth David on the punchy, rousing Hung Empty, while reflecting that “depression is a young man’s game” on the dreamier, wistful 5 Flucloxacillin. Thoughts on their roots take a delicate, sorrowful turn on The Fall of Home, while the frenetic, seething I Broke Up in Amarante explores fear and loathing in Portugal. It’s scene-stealing stuff.
