While Sick Scenes comes after their longest break between albums, they’ve lost no ground. Instead, they’ve made their saddest yet most rewarding album to date.
Sick Scenes is an emotional melting pot of joy, regret and rage against the passage of time. But as heavy as that sounds, Los Campesinos! has never sounded lighter on its feet. With some of their catchiest songs yet and Gareth's muse in top form, this album stands among their strongest work.
Los Campesinos!' brief hiatus has resulted in one of their strongest releases to date; Sick Scenes is an eloquent testament to the triumphs and trials of adulthood.
Though Sick Scenes is unlikely to win the band legions of new fans, it’s a record that sits comfortably alongside the rest of their canon while acting as an affirmation as to why, in 2017, a decade after their debut, Los Campesinos! are just as important now as they were ten years ago.
Sick Scenes isn’t a doom and gloom exercise, nor miserable thousand-yard stare. Instead it is the sound of a band doubling down on what brought them to their particular dance, peppered with unflinching honesty and conviction, all dressed up in requisite ‘take us or leave us’ glamour.
Sick Scenes sees LC! offering up a liberating set of songs about odious city hipsters, youthful nostalgia and future anxiety, wrapped up in the seven-piece’s usual glorious flurry of chipper riffs and witty lyricisms.
While ‘Sick Scenes’ is a record that questions its authors places in the world in tandem, it’s also one that shows that, for as long as they’re here, Los Campesinos! will always be able to express a certain character type better than most.
Sick Scenes, the British group’s sixth album, plays like a love letter to aging indie idealism; to the fans who have reveled in this band’s careening pop-punk singalongs, scathing neuroses, and charmingly specific soccer references.
If Sick Scenes doesn’t necessarily cohere as a whole, the individual songs are strong enough that it also doesn’t really matter.
The indie pop band has never released a subpar album; instead they've been consistent in creating songs that resonate on both lyrical and sonic levels. And their latest, Sick Scenes is no different.
If you’ve found Los Campesinos! to be a bit much in the past, this isn’t going to be the album that changes your mind. But Los Campesinos! aren’t trying to change minds. They just make records, and they’ve made a very good one in Sick Scenes.
Thematically and lyrically, ‘Sick Scenes’ examines places that host scenes of extreme emotion, which have a deep personal resonance.
It all makes for an unbalanced listening experience, one that only the most dedicated Los Campesinos! fans will likely want to undertake. For anyone else, Sick Scenes might be a little too over-produced and undercooked, despite the moments when some of the band's old thrills poke through the fresh coat of paint.
Solid album, not very much to say about it but tracks 1 and 4 are fantastic
Favourite tracks: ★ Renato Dall'ara (2008), A Slow Slow Death, The Fall of Home
And that concludes my dive on Los Campesinos!!! I'll miss it... I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS CAMPESINOS I LOVE LOS ... read more
as the name suggests, this album is indeed pretty sick. after their longest break between albums (at the time of review) Los Campesinos offer a showcase of refined pop-punk/indie greatness. it's always a pleasure to listen to Los Campesinos, and here is absolutely no different.
favourite tracks: Renato Dall'Ara (2008), I Broke Up in Amarante, A Slow Slow Death
Album Name: Sick Scenes
Album Artist: Los Campesinos!
Favourite Song: Renato Dell'Ara (2008)
Least Favourite Song:
Enjoyment Rating: 10/10
Album Rating: 9.4/10
Favourite tracks: A Slow, Slow Death, 5 Flucloxacillin, For Whom the Belly Tolls, Got Stendhal’s, Hung Empty
as the name suggests, this album is indeed pretty sick. after their longest break between albums (at the time of review) Los Campesinos offer a showcase of refined pop-punk/indie greatness. it's always a pleasure to listen to Los Campesinos, and here is absolutely no different.
favourite tracks: Renato Dall'Ara (2008), I Broke Up in Amarante, A Slow Slow Death
1 | Renato Dall'Ara (2008) 2:48 | 92 |
2 | Sad Suppers 3:37 | 79 |
3 | I Broke Up in Amarante 3:14 | 82 |
4 | A Slow, Slow Death 4:01 | 92 |
5 | The Fall of Home 2:57 | 87 |
6 | 5 Flucloxacillin 3:09 | 79 |
7 | Here’s to the Fourth Time! 3:45 | 81 |
8 | For Whom the Belly Tolls 3:24 | 81 |
9 | Got Stendhal’s 5:27 | 84 |
10 | A Litany/Heart Swells 3:27 | 78 |
11 | Hung Empty 4:30 | 79 |
#35 | / | No Ripcord |
#40 | / | Dork |
#72 | / | Louder Than War |