We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is full of half-heartfelt, half-hilarious songs that capture the rush of being young in a noisy new century.
Cooked up in a session originally meant to spawn a batch of B-sides, ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ instead debuts 10 songs that outstrip LC!’s debut album at every turn.
We Are Beautiful might not be the pinnacle for Los Campesinos!, but it does prove they’re rapidly on their way up.
Seasoned yet no less hyper — there’s still plenty of shouting in unison — the band lays down a more stable foundation for the lyrical zingers of singer-lyricist Gareth Campesinos .
Hold on Now, Youngster is still the more magical of the two records, it's the one to play when you want to feel joy, but We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed has more depth and feeling.
The band is still firing on all cylinders, even when they downshift into the textured, minor key electronics-and-acoustic guitar lament of “Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time” or the instrumental snippet “Between an Erupting Earth and an Exploding Sky” (strangely reminiscent of Mogwai’s “The Sun Smells Too Loud”), and no one can make bitterly self-aware misanthropy sound quite as exciting as this band does.
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is an immensely enjoyable, plain-sailing cluster of energetic, singable melodies.
The songs explode with more energy than the whole underground combined. This makes it very hard not to love Los Campesinos!, and makes it easier to forgive the fact that this record could have been better served as an EP.
Not really that much to say. It's Los Campesinos alright, sounding as welsh as ever
Ways to Make It Through the Wall - 8
Miserabilia - 8.5
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed - 8
Between an Erupting Earth and an Exploding Sky - 8
You'll Need Those Fingers for Crossing - 8.5
It's Never That Easy Though, Is It? (Song for the Other Hurt) - 8
End of the Asterisk - 8.5
Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1 - 8
Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time - 8
All Your Kayfabe Friends - 8
Favourite tracks: ... read more
(Analbumaday Day 114)
Weirdly fun! Don’t have much time to write a review right now but it’s a pretty interesting album that’s loud and childlike, while still having emo elements. Not my thing but it’s cool.
Los Campesinos! remain consistent and remain amazing. only a couple of months after Hold On Now, Youngster and it already sounds more mature and already has a different sound structure. this could be a bias bc i am a huge los campesinos fan (literally wearing my Los Campesinos! shirt as i’m writing this review) but this album is almost perfect.
favourite: Ways To Make It Through The Wall, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed & Heart Swells / Pacific Daylight Time
least favourite: All ... read more
metieron unos casettes de midwest emo a una licuadora y con lo que quedó hicieron el disco, se escucha re sucio.
Just a few months after their debut, Los Campesinos! returns with a follow-up LP that does much more than the typical sophomore slump many bands face. In such a short space of time, the group had done a great job at refining their sound as this record has a much darker tone to it. Not that it’s all misery, it is still just as upbeat at times as their debut but the lyrics have managed to mature well while keeping the consistent quirkiness to them as they’re known for.
Fav tracks: ... read more