CD of The Week

Los Campesinos! are no strangers to bitingly bitter takes on relationship angst. But Hello Sadness, the fourth album to come from the Cardiff septet, is an exercise in well-orchestrated despair. The album tells the narrative of dissolving relationships and it’s achingly pesonal - thanks in part to the characteristic biting, spitting vocals of Gareth Campesinos!. Hello Sadness is not the spunky, chaotic romp of their earlier albums, though it still packs plenty of passion and energy.

The first three tracks pack the album’s punch, starting with lead single “By Your Hand.” Fans of Los Campesinos!’s earlier work should feel right at home with “Songs About Your Girlfriend,” which captures their old dizzying energy complete with bouncy xylophone percussion. The album’s title track keeps the high energy coming, though more polished this time with a mounting creschendo of strings and vocals over the repeated chorus, “It’s only hope that springs eternal...”

“Life Is A Long Time” brings the album to a mellow turn. Despite the relentless hope of the three opening songs, things take a melancholy turn as our narrator can’t deny his dissolving relationship: “You know it starts pretty rough and ends up even worse / And what goes on in between, I try to keep it out of my thoughts.” And the troubles keep coming; he can’t even catch a break with his favorite sports team, whose crushing loss pains an aching parallel with the definitive end of a relationship in “Every Defeat a Divorce”: “If he hasn’t blown the whistle / Then this isn’t quite the end / Every defeat a divorce / It’s just par for the course I guess...” Despairing resignation never sounded so poetically truthful.

The album’s closing track ends with no sense of resolution, but I suppose that’s how real-life heartbreak feels - endless, unsettling, and desperately quiet. Hello Sadness might not showcase the punchy, boundless energy of Los Campesinos!’s earlier work that their fans embraced, but it’s a solid listen with plenty of memorable, passionate moments.