Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

Los Campesinos! – Sick Scenes

  • Dork
  • February 24, 2017
Label:
Released:
Rating:

Los Campesinos! have finally embraced who they are.


‘Album’ of ‘the Week’

Los Campesinos! - Sick Scenes



Label: Wichita Recordings
Released: 24th February 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

There’s no denying that Los Campesinos! have played the long game. Prioritising a hard-working DIY ethos over making a quick buck, the music they’ve produced over the past few years has always been held together by one thing – a raw, open honesty in Gareth’s lyrics that incite wry smiles as readily as tears.

‘Sick Scenes’ pushes Los Camp!’s most distinctive qualities to the fore – hitting the perfect sweet spot of musical perkiness but lyrical despair. Speedy guitars and self-loathing battle each other to the finish line via an obstacle course of gang vocals, football analogies and Cure-worthy atmospherics, used to tell some close-to-home tales about love, depression and the ‘is this really it?’ anxiety that plagues so many millennials. So much of the bands’ career has centred around Gareth’s attempts to find love in a hopeless place, and it’s quite the sensation to experience his place in this record, seemingly having found it but not altogether better for it – ‘‘I’m glad to be in love, but I’m lonely/and I feel like I’m the only one’ (‘Hung Empty’).

This sense of no-frills honesty really glows on the record’s slower tracks – it’s no coincidence that the intro to ‘A Slow Slow Death’ sounds remarkably similar to that of past single ‘Hello Sadness’, beautifully describing the ‘elephant shoes’ that make it so difficult for depression sufferers to go about their lives. ‘The Fall Of Home’ is something even those lucky enough to avoid mental illness can relate to, watching a hometown go to shit as both memories and youth fade.

When depression statistics are higher than ever, and it’s all too easy to compare somebody’s else’s Instagram feed to our trash folder, ‘Sick Scenes’ feels like an important record. If acknowledgement really is half the battle, this is an album where Los Campesinos! have finally embraced who they are. Jenessa Williams

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Music News

Ben Howard has announced a huge 2023 UK and European tour

  • March 20, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Somerset House Summer Series announce 2023 line up, including Beabadoobee and Olivia Dean

  • March 21, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, VLURE and more – this is what’s fresh on the Dork Radio playlist this week

  • March 20, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Features
    Sabrina Carpenter: Pop hits
    • Music News
    Baba Ali have dropped a new single, ‘Hold My Head’
    • Music News
    Check out Sam Akpro‘s new single, ‘Arrival’
    • Music News
    Emmeline has shared a new single, ‘The Dance’
    • Music News
    Lollapalooza 2023 confirm The 1975, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey and more

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.