There’s the archetypical vulnerability lurking beneath each track, but their sound suggests something everyone from that mid-2000s period has (hopefully) done – matured and become more assured.
By the close of the album the band is flexing musical chops, playing with textures, detuning and rebuilding the song in front of your eyes and being something very much outside its wheelhouse. They are taking risks, and they work.
The peaks and troughs are much less pronounced here, because nothing is quite as straightforward as it used to be – the surface is more composed but beneath the songs are coloured with the complexity of age, as everything melts into everything else.
Where Hello Sadness seemed like a more mature album, No Blues finds Los Campesinos! getting a better, more pragmatic handle on aging: Growing up doesn’t mean giving up on what you’ve loved.
Given all the changes, it's good to report that there's still a distinct voice. Most importantly, and most impressively, five albums in and Gareth Campesinos! has produced his best performance ever.
It's one gripped with thoughts of death and yet somehow it's is the very sound of being alive. Los Campesinos! are a band who've clearly grown up, but here, that's only a good thing.
Rather than letting their energy splay out in all directions, LC! maintain a focus and unanimity that reinvigorates the band and should surprise people who may have checked out after Romance is Boring.
No Blues sees Los Campesinos! continue to file their sound down to its purest form. No Blues shows the wisdom of age, rather than its perceived follies.
‘No Blues’ finds the band settling into a more consistent sound. Despite the positive title, singer Gareth Paisey is as lyrically downbeat as ever, but it’s the melodic swells that prevent everything becoming too suicidal.
Their fifth album continues the work done on their last, 2011’s Hello Sadness, the emotional context and sentiments much sharper, painfully so in some cases, with big, lovely pop hooks on even their starkest tracks.
Los Camp have never sounded better or more essential, even if it’s all a little Motion City Soundtrack-ish. No Blues should propel them forward creatively and gain them a well deserved new fan base, all while giving all of us something to dance to with our friends after a few long islands.
Without the usual thrust of instrument, No Blues refocuses on melody and Gareth Campesinos' vivid lyrical constructions.
The band's previous album, Hello Sadness, was something of a return to form after the really stiff Romance Is Boring, but No Blues can't keep up the energy and fire that the band began to stoke.
The intros to all the songs on this album are such ear sex
All killer, no filler. Super memorable and underrated, Selling Rope is the best song they ever made
Favourite tracks: As Lucerne / The Low, The Time Before the Last Time, ★ Selling Rope (Swan Dive to Estuary)
ok so how about LC! but its even more pop
idk, not a bad record by any means, but comparing this to their older work its much more of a mixed bag. there are songs on here that absolutely slap, then some that are ok, and then theres as lucerne/the low. idk why, but i just did not fuck with that piano sound in the slightest. this album is like a pop LC!, so if you're into that, then this ones for you, but for me, im just not too crazy about it. its good, but not as good as their older stuff ... read more
I just DO NOT CARE. None of this captivates me. It's alright, it's not bad. I just cannot get into this. At least Hello Sadness had some songs that kept my interest. Only thing I was interested in was a few choruses.
Oh my God.
Edit:
I have had a few hours now (it’s the first of January at 2:30am) to collect my thoughts on this album. I can safely say that this is the best Los Campesinos! album I have come across. I’m sure Sick Scenes will be great, but this absolutely takes the cake. I’m even putting it on my favourite albums list.
It sounds beautiful. Each and every song is a pure eargasm (yes I really said that), and lyrically it is pure poetry. The music is awesome and often feels ... read more
1 | For Flotsam 3:44 | 87 |
2 | What Death Leaves Behind 3:38 | 86 |
3 | A Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man 3:02 | 85 |
4 | Cemetery Gaits 4:53 | 91 |
5 | Glue Me 5:05 | 88 |
6 | As Lucerne/The Low 4:23 | 84 |
7 | Avocado, Baby 4:36 | 94 |
8 | Let It Spill 3:21 | 85 |
9 | The Time Before the Last Time 2:48 | 89 |
10 | Selling Rope (Swan Dive to Estuary) 6:18 | 99 |
#14 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#18 | / | A.V. Club |
#49 | / | PopMatters |
#72 | / | musicOMH |